Ethics

It now appears (see below) that the Law Society of Manitoba was aware of the incident with the client, but did not do anything, perhaps because the client had not brought a complaint?  That may clear the law firm of my complaints about them (depending on how the Law Society became aware).  It raises, though, a new issue about whether the Law Society should have waited for a formal complaint before investigation.

It also appears that the lawyer is now saying various negative things about his former client.  Which raises a new ethical issue: if your client raises issues of professional misconduct can you disclose information about the client which you learned during the course of your lawyer-client relationship that might suggest the client is not credible?  Has the client waived privilege to that extent by bringing the complaint?

I would have thought not.  

Finally, is a confidentiality agreement binding in these circumstances?

Here is the National Post story (I can't make hyper-link work for some reason):

http://www.nationalpost.com/Manitoba+judge+lawyer+face+probe+over+past+personal+lives/3469120/story.html