Rule 20-114 Rules of Professional Conduct; compliance.

A lawyer must make sure that any paralegal, legal assistant, or other support staff working under them follows the same ethical rules that lawyers must follow. If the lawyer would get in trouble for doing something, the lawyer can't let their staff do that thing either.

This means the lawyer is on the hook for their staff's actions. If a paralegal does something that would break the rules of professional conduct if a lawyer did it, the supervising lawyer can be held responsible. The lawyer can't avoid accountability just because a non-lawyer employee was the one who actually did the problematic task.

In short, this rule closes a loophole. Lawyers can't use staff members to do things indirectly that they're not allowed to do directly. Whoever hires and supervises paralegals or assistants has a duty to train them properly and watch over their work, so client interests and legal ethics stay protected no matter who is handling the task.