3.130(5.2) Responsibilities of a subordinate lawyer

If you're a lawyer working under someone else's supervision, you still have to follow the rules of professional conduct on your own. You can't use "my boss told me to do it" as an excuse for breaking ethics rules. Every lawyer is personally responsible for their own conduct, no matter their position in a law firm or organization.

That said, the rule gives some protection to junior lawyers. If there's a genuine gray area about what the right thing to do is, and your supervisor gives you a reasonable answer on how to handle it, you're allowed to follow that guidance. You won't get in trouble just because someone later disagrees with that judgment call, as long as your supervisor's decision was reasonable at the time.

This rule tries to balance two things. It makes sure lawyers can't hide behind orders from above when they do something clearly wrong. But it also recognizes that law firms need structure, and junior lawyers shouldn't be punished for trusting a supervisor's reasonable call on a genuinely unclear ethical question.