Task:

POST: Totaling no more than six sentences, respond in paragraph form to the questions listed for each scenario by citing the specific sections of Rule 3-100 from the State Bar of California and your reading of Chapter 4. Please be sure to distinguish one scenario from the other in your post.

Scenario #1: Juan is a litigation paralegal in a large full-service law firm. Many of the clients are wealthy individuals and corporations. One morning a client named Adam, who is a famous actor, comes into the office unannounced. His lawyer, John, is not in, but the receptionist asks Juan to talk to Adam in the reception area. When Juan sees Adam, he knows something is wrong: he is disheveled and wild-eyed. He immediately erupts in a loud voice about someone dying the night before. He is incoherent, but Juan hears the words "argument" and "gun."

Questions: What should Juan do? What if Juan cannot get Adam to stop, and he tells the whole story in the reception area? Is this information privileged? Why or why not? What if one of the paparazzi following Adam overhears the conversation with his ear to the door?

Scenario #2: Paralegal Ana retires from her 20-year career in several prominent law firms in San Francisco where she worked with famous clients from the tech industry. She decides to take up writing and producing a tell-all book full of interesting stories about the legal escapades of these clients, the Silicon Valley elite. She self-publishes it and sells it on Amazon.

Questions: Has she violated the privilege or breached the duty of confidentiality? Why or why not? What might be the consequences of her conduct? What if she were a lawyer?

Scenario #3: Lawyer Thea is representing a client in criminal court on a drug charge. The night before she is scheduled to appear, she gets a call from the clients mother who tells her not to expect the client in the court because he just left the house "as high as a kite." In court the next day, the judges ask Thea where the client is.

Questions: What can Thea say? Must she tell the judge what she knows? What ethical duties are in balance here, and which one prevails?