Lawyer Censured For Having Sex With Divorce Client

From the Providence Journal 3.6.99 -- A Rhode Island lawyer who is also licensed to practice in Massachusetts, was publicly censured yesterday for having consensual sex with a client while he was representing her in a divorce.

The Rhode Island Supreme Court, in issuing the public reprimand, said it does not have a rule prohibiting sexual relations between lawyers and their clients and noted that it has ``previously declined to establish broad guidelines for the sexual activities of members of the bar.''

However,' the court said, "we have also recognized that when an attorney engages in sexual relations with a divorce client, particularly where issues of child custody and division of marital assets are disputed, that attorney's interest in maintaining the sexual relationship creates an inherent conflict with the proper representation of the client.''

The court said that once this attorney began a sexual relationship with the client, he should have withdrawn as her lawyer in the divorce. The divorce case was filed in Massachussetts, but the sexual relations took place in Rhode Island, according to the court's decision.

The court said that had the sexual relationship had an adverse impact on the client's divorce case, it would have imposed a more severe sanction on the lawyer, but that the court's disciplinary board specifically found that the client  ``had not incurred any actual harm as a result of the improper relationship.''