Opinion 1559

The Committee reviewed your inquiry regarding your obligation concerning conflicts of interest between you and a tenant law firm subleasing office space from your firm. The Committee is of the opinion that so long as you maintained separate law firms, including separate support staff, filing systems, computer network, and so on, there is no conflict of interest between clients of the firms. However, if the two firms operate physically as though they were a single firm, sharing the sort of support services mentioned above, then it would be necessary for the firms to develop a screening mechanism to avoid conflicts of interest.

Advisory Opinions are provided for the education of the Bar and reflect the opinion of the Committee on Professional Ethics (CPE) or its predecessors. Advisory Opinions are provided pursuant to the authorization granted by the Board of Governors, but are not individually approved by the Board and do not reflect the official position of the Bar association. Laws other than the Washington State Rules of Professional Conduct may apply to the inquiry. The Committee's answer does not include or opine about any other applicable law other than the meaning of the Rules of Professional Conduct.