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Iowa R. Prof'l Conduct 32:2.1

Not legal advice. Verify against official sources before relying on this text in any legal matter.

Rule 32:2.1 Advisor

Counselor

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Rule Text

In representing a client, a lawyer shall exercise independent professional judgment and render candid advice. In rendering advice, a lawyer may refer not only to law but to other considerations such as moral, economic, social, and political factors, that may be relevant to the client’s situation.

Amendment history: Court Order April 20, 2005, effective July 1, 2005

Plain-English Summary (for reference only — not a substitute for the rule text above)

This summary is not the rule. The rule text controls.

When you hire a lawyer, they are supposed to give you honest advice based on their own professional judgment, not just tell you what you want to hear. Their advice has to be independent, meaning they should not let outside pressure or their own interests get in the way of giving you a straight answer.

Lawyers are also allowed to look beyond just the strict legal rules when giving advice. They can talk with you about moral, financial, social, or even political factors if those things matter to your situation. This means a good lawyer will help you think through the real-world impact of your decisions, not just what is technically legal.

This rule basically reminds lawyers that their job is to guide you with honest, well-rounded advice. It is not enough to just recite the law. They should help you understand how a decision might affect your life, your finances, or your relationships, so you can make a fully informed choice.

Committee Notes

Scope of Advice

[1] A client is entitled to straightforward advice expressing the lawyer’s honest assessment. Legal advice often involves unpleasant facts and alternatives that a client may be disinclined to confront. In presenting advice, a lawyer endeavors to sustain the client’s morale and may put advice in as acceptable a form as honesty permits. However, a lawyer should not be deterred from giving candid advice by the prospect that the advice will be unpalatable to the client.

[2] Advice couched in narrow legal terms may be of little value to a client, especially where practical considerations, such as cost or effects on other people, are predominant. Purely technical legal advice, therefore, can sometimes be inadequate. It is proper for a lawyer to refer to relevant moral and ethical considerations in giving advice. Although a lawyer is not a moral advisor as such, moral and ethical considerations impinge upon most legal questions and may decisively influence how the law will be applied. In the final analysis, the lawyer should always remember that the decision whether to pursue or forgo legally available objectives or methods because of nonlegal factors is ultimately for the client and not for the lawyer.

[3] A client may expressly or impliedly ask the lawyer for purely technical advice. When such a request is made by a client experienced in legal matters, the lawyer may accept it at face value. When such a request is made by a client inexperienced in legal matters, however, the lawyer’s responsibility as advisor may include indicating that more may be involved than strictly legal considerations.

[4] Matters that go beyond strictly legal questions may also be in the domain of another profession. Family matters can involve problems within the professional competence of psychiatry, clinical psychology, or social work; business matters can involve problems within the competence of the accounting profession or of financial specialists. Where consultation with a professional in another field is itself something a competent lawyer would recommend, the lawyer should make such a recommendation. At the same time, a lawyer’s advice at its best often consists of recommending a course of action in the face of conflicting recommendations of experts.

Offering Advice

[5] In general, a lawyer is not expected to give advice until asked by the client. However, when a lawyer knows that a client proposes a course of action that is likely to result in substantial adverse legal consequences to the client, the lawyer’s duty to the client under rule 32:1.4 may require that the lawyer offer advice if the client’s course of action is related to the representation. Similarly, when a matter is likely to involve litigation, it may be necessary under rule 32:1.4 to inform the client of forms of dispute resolution that might constitute reasonable alternatives to litigation. A lawyer ordinarily has no duty to initiate investigation of a client’s affairs or to give advice that the client has indicated is unwanted, but a lawyer may initiate advice to a client when doing so appears to be in the client’s interest.

← Previous Rule 32:1.18: Duties to Prospective Client Next → Rule 32:2.2: Reserved