famous conflict of interest cases

Legal Cases - Conflicts of Interest Prince Jefri Bolkiah v KPMG (1999) Synopsis/Facts Brunei Investment Agency (BIA) was established in 1983. See ibid. One of the company's directors saw a 'for sale . Pp. The notion that Wood created a new rule sub silentio is implausible. In this case the company operated grocery stores, but also owned a commercial property which it let to tenant. Id., at 488. 10 The Battle Of Bloody Bayc.1480. The distinction is irrational on its face, it creates a scheme of incentives to judicial vigilance that is weakest in those cases presenting the greatest risk of conflict and unfair trial, and it reduces the so-called judicial duty to enquire into so many empty words. Holloway presumed, moreover, that the conflict, "which [the defendant] and his counsel tried to avoid by timely objections to the joint representation," id., at 490, undermined the adversarial process. Id., at 272. In such cases, it makes sense to seek another institu- tion . Every state bar in the country has an ethical rule prohibiting a lawyer from undertaking a representation that involves a conflict of interest unless the client has waived the conflict. Thus, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure treat concurrent representation and prior representation differently, requiring a trial court to inquire into the likelihood of conflict whenever jointly charged defendants are represented by a single attorney (Rule 44(c)), but not when counsel previously represented another defendant in a substantially related matter, even where the trial court is aware of the prior representation.6 See Sullivan, supra, at 346, n.10 (citing the Rule). See Holloway, 435 U.S., at 491. At the guilt phase, the trial court judge instructed Mickens' jury as follows: "If you find that the Commonwealth has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the killing occurred in the commission of, or subsequent to, attempted forcible sodomy . The juvenile-court judge, whom circumstances had thrust into the unusual position of having to appoint counsel in a notorious capital case, certainly knew or had reason to know of the possibility that Saunders's 14-day representation of the murder victim, up to the start of the previous business day, may have created a risk of impairing his representation of Mickens in his upcoming murder trial. This duty is something more than the general responsibility to rule without committing legal error; it is an affirmative obligation to investigate a disclosed possibility that defense counsel will be unable to act with uncompromised loyalty to his client. It is also counter to our precedent to treat all Sixth Amendment challenges involving conflicts of interest categorically, without inquiry into the surrounding factual circumstances. Ultimately, the question presented by this case is whether, if these duties exist and if all of them are violated, there exist "circumstances that are so likely to prejudice the accused that the cost of litigating their effect in a particular case is unjustified." Simply log into Settings & Account and select "Cancel" on the right-hand side. It is of vital importance to the defendant and to the community that any decision to impose the death sentence be, and appear to be, based on reason rather than caprice or emotion." Quite obviously, knowledge that the lawyer represented the victim would be a substantial obstacle to the development of such confidence. A requirement that the defendant show adverse effect when the court committed no error surely does not justify such a requirement when the court did err. Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 44(c) provides: "Whenever two or more defendants have been jointly charged pursuant to Rule 8(b) or have been joined for trial pursuant to Rule 13, and are represented by the same retained or assigned counsel or by retained or assigned counsel who are associated in the practice of law, the court shall promptly inquire with respect to such joint representation and shall personally advise each defendant of the right to the effective assistance of counsel, including separate representation. SINGAPORE - The Court of Three Judges looked at these three precedent cases involving conflict of interest before handing down a 15-month suspension to lawyer Lee Suet Fern for her role in the . The majority is thus mistaken in its claim that the State's objection sufficed to put the court on notice of a duty to enquire as to the particular conflict of interest to the Wood Court, see ante, at 7, n.2, unless the majority means to say that mention of any imagined conflict is sufficient to put a judge on notice of a duty to enquire into the full universe of possible conflicts. The trial court's awareness of a potential conflict neither renders it more likely that counsel's performance was significantly affected nor in any other way renders the verdict unreliable. This right has been accorded, we have said, "not for its own sake, but because of the effect it has on the ability of the accused to receive a fair trial." Setting aside Mickens' conviction is the only remedy that can maintain public confidence in the fairness of the procedures employed in capital cases. The District Court's findings depend upon credibility judgments made after hearing the testimony of petitioner's counsel, Bryan Saunders, and other witnesses. The parties spend a great deal of time disputing how this Court's precedents of Holloway v. Arkansas, 435 U.S. 475 (1978), Cuyler v. Sullivan, 446 U.S. 335 (1980), and Wood v. Georgia, 450 U.S. 261 (1981), resolve the case. (a)A defendant alleging ineffective assistance generally must demonstrate a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. And the Holloway Court said that once a conflict objection is made and unheeded, the conviction "must be reversed . For example, a conflict of interest would arise if one law firm tried to represent both parties in a divorce case. 1979, No. App. Id., at 694. Von Moltke, 322 U.S., at 722. According to the District Court, there was no plausible argument that the victim consented to sexual relations with his murderer, given the bruises on the victim's neck, blood marks showing the victim was stabbed before or during sexual intercourse, and, most important, petitioner's insistence on testifying at trial that he had never met the victim. Loyalty to a client is also impaired when a lawyer cannot consider, recommend or carry out an appropriate course of action for the client because of the lawyer's other responsibilities or interests"). In 1993, a Virginia jury convicted petitioner Mickens of the premeditated murder of Timothy Hall during or following the commission of an attempted forcible sodomy. The declaration made in year 2007 are all. 2d 586, 613-615 (ED Va. 1999). A revelation that a trusted advocate could not place his client's interest above the interests of self and others in the satisfaction of his professional responsibilities will destroy that confidence, regardless of outcome. Explainer: The Trumps' conflict of interest issues. Learn more about FindLaws newsletters, including our terms of use and privacy policy. Vuitton et Fils S.A., 481 U.S. 787, 811-812 (1987) (plurality opinion). We would be required to assume that Saunders believed he had a continuing duty to the victim, and we then would be required to consider whether in this hypothetical case, the counsel would have been blocked from pursuing an alternative defense strategy. Id., at 272-273. offers FT membership to read for free. The relevance of Saunders' prior representation of Hall to the new appointment was far too important to be concealed. For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the Settings & Account section. Whether Sullivan should be extended to such cases remains, as far as the jurisprudence of this Court is concerned, an open question. Cuyler v. Sullivan, 446 U.S. 335, 347 (1980).8 But when, as was true in this case, the judge is not merely reviewing the permissibility of the defendants' choice of counsel, but is responsible for making the choice herself, and when she knows or should know that a conflict does exist, the duty to make a thorough inquiry is manifest and unqualified.9 Indeed, under far less compelling circumstances, we squarely held that when a record discloses the "possibility of a conflict" between the interests of the defendants and the interests of the party paying their counsel's fees, the Constitution imposes a duty of inquiry on the state- court judge even when no objection was made. That should be the result here. This is not what happened. Wood simply followed and confirmed the pre-existing scheme established by Holloway and Cuyler. SC suspends lawyer over conflict of interest. The court concluded that petitioner had not demonstrated adverse effect. See ante, at 3 ("[I]t also follows that defects in assistance that have no probable effect upon the trial's outcome do not establish a constitutional violation"). According to conflict-of-interest disclosures in journal articles on which Granger was an author, he received additional, unspecified amounts from those companies between 2010 and 2012. Examples of Conflicts of Interest At Work Hiring an unqualified relative to provide services your company needs Starting a company that provides services similar to your full-time employer Failing to disclose that you're related to a job candidate the company is considering hiring The District Court denied habeas relief, and an en banc majority of the Fourth Circuit affirmed. Ante, at 11. First, it is the remedy dictated by our holdings in Holloway v. Arkansas, 435 U.S. 475 (1978), Cuyler v. Sullivan, 446 U.S. 335 (1980), and Wood v. Georgia, 450 U.S. 261 (1981). 450 U.S., at 268. I disagree with the Court's assertion that the inquiry mandated by Cuyler v. Sullivan, 446 U.S. 335 (1980), will not aid in the determination of conflict and effect. According to the Washington Post, the House Committee on Education and Labor has sought records concerning potential conflicts of interest for more than a year. On this view, the exception in Holloway for objection cases turns solely on the theory that "harm" can safely be presumed when counsel objects to no avail at the sign of danger. This argument, of course, has no force whatsoever in the case of the venal conflicted lawyer who remains silent out of personal self-interest or the obtuse lawyer who stays silent because he could not recognize a conflict if his own life depended on it. At that point in the proceeding, by definition, the defendant has no lawyer to protect his interests and must rely entirely on the judge. 446 U.S., at 347-348. Because doubt "is the best means of competing with the 'body of fact' that exists in the mind of the general public. We declined to extend Holloway's automatic reversal rule to this situation and held that, absent objection, a defendant must demonstrate that "a conflict of interest actually affected the adequacy of his representation." A lawyer cannot possibly determine how best to represent a new client unless that client is willing to provide the lawyer with a truthful account of the relevant facts. Because the appointing judge knew of the conflict, there is no need in this case to decide what should be done when the judge neither knows, nor should know, about the existence of an intolerable conflict. And as if that were not bad enough, a failure to act early raises the specter, confronted by the Holloway Court, that failures on the part of conflicted counsel will elude demonstration after the fact, simply because they so often consist of what did not happen. The Sixth Amendment guarantees defendants the right to "effective assistance of counsel," which includes "a duty of loyalty" and "a duty to avoid conflicts of interest ." Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 686, 688 (1984). Indeed, the State had actually notified the judge of a potential conflict of interest "`[d]uring the probation revocation hearing.' Little Albert. " 450 U.S., at 272, n.18. Wells Fargo was fined $185 million by regulators, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.As our video " Conflict of Interest " indicates, it is often in an employee's best interest not to do what benefits his or her employer. But the Court also indicated that an objection is not required as a matter of law: "Unless the trial court knows or reasonably should know that a particular conflict exists, the court need not initiate an enquiry." See, e.g., Campbell v. Rice, 265 F.3d 878, 887-888 (CA9 2001) (reversing conviction under Holloway when trial judge failed to enquire after the prosecutor indicated defense counsel had just been arraigned by the prosecutor's office on felony drug charges); United States v. Rogers, 209 F.3d 139, 145-146 (CA2 2000) (reversing conviction when District Court failed to enquire on notice that counsel for defendant alleging police misconduct was a police commissioner); United States v. Allen, 831 F.2d 1487, 1495-1496 (CA9 1987) (finding Magistrate Judge had reasonably enquired into joint representation of 17 codefendants who entered a group guilty plea, but reversing because the District Court failed to enquire when defense counsel later gave the court a list "rank[ing] the defendants by their relative culpability"). Contrary to the majority's conclusion, see ante, at 6-7, n.2, there was no tension at all between acknowledging the rule of reversal to be applied when a judge fails to enquire into a known risk of prospective conflict, Wood, 450 U.S., at 272, n.18, while at the same time sending the Wood case itself back for a determination about actual, past conflict, id., at 273-274. Because a lawyer's fiduciary relationship with his deceased client survives the client's death, Swidler & Berlin v. United States, 524 U.S. 399 (1998), Saunders necessarily labored under conflicting obligations that were irreconcilable. . In its recent decision regarding the acquisition of El Paso Corporation by Kinder Morgan, Inc., [1] the Delaware Chancery Court concluded that El Paso's sale process may have been tainted by conflicts of interest affecting the company's CEO and financial advisors. 3 Ibid. The majority rejected petitioner's argument that the juvenile court judge's failure to inquire into a potential conflict either mandated automatic reversal of his conviction or relieved him of the burden of showing that a conflict of interest adversely affected his representation. Defense counsel also cited two equal protection decisions of this Court, Tate v. Short, 401 U.S. 395 (1971), and Williams v. Illinois, 399 U.S. 235 (1970); it may very well be that he meant to say "equal protection" rather than "legal protection" or the latter was in fact a garbled transcription, but it seems unlikely that the Wood Court was referring to this statement when it said counsel "was pressing a constitutional attack rather than making the arguments for leniency," 450 U.S., at 272, because it was made to supplement, not replace, appeals to leniency based on the specific financial situations of the individual defendants. Some Courts of Appeals have read a footnote in Wood v. Georgia, 450 U.S. 261, 272, n.18 (1981), as establishing that outright reversal is mandated when the trial court neglects a duty to inquire into a potential conflict of interest. In resolving this case on the grounds on which it was presented to us, we do not rule upon the need for the Sullivan prophylaxis in cases of successive representation. 1979, No. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. While the perceptive and conscientious lawyer (as in Holloway) needs nothing more than ethical duty to induce an objection, the venal lawyer is not apt to be reformed by a general rule that says his client will have an easier time reversing a conviction down the road if the lawyer calls attention to his own venality.10. The U.S. House of Representatives is subpoenaing the National Labor Relations Board over alleged ethical violations, including one member's involvement in a McDonald's joint employer case. Holloway v. Arkansas, 435 U. S. 475, 484 (1978). In Holloway, a trial judge appointed one public defender to represent three criminal defendants tried jointly. The District Court said the same for counsel's alleged dereliction at the sentencing phase. Standard Digital includes access to a wealth of global news, analysis and expert opinion. The Russian Laundromat (with a little help from Moldova) 10. As Justice White pointed out, absent relevant evidence in the record, it was reasonable that the employer might have refused to pay because the defendants were no longer employees, or because it no longer owned adult establishments. 15 Nov 2022 Book Stop Ignoring Bad Behavior: 6 Tips for Better Ethics at Work by Pamela Reynolds Model Rule of Professional Responsibility 1.7, pp. 16.1-305 (1999), but petitioner learned about Saunders' prior representation when a clerk mistakenly produced Hall's file to federal habeas counsel. Third, is whether the trial judge, who knows or should know of such prior representation, has a duty to obtain the defendant's consent before appointing that lawyer to represent him. From the point of view of society, the action of the sovereign in taking the life of one of its citizens also differs dramatically from any other legitimate state action. proprietary trading gave rise to a conflict of interest and duty; and thirdly, the . Post, at 6-7 (dissenting opinion). As a reviewing court, our role is not to speculate about counsel's motives or about the plausibility of alternative litigation strategies. Ante, at 9. And we have used "conflict of interest" to mean a division of loyalties that affected counsel's performance. Discussing the necessity of full disclosure to the preservation of the lawyer-client relationship, Justice Story stated: "I agree to the doctrine urged at the bar, as to the delicacy of the relation of client and attorney, and the duty of a full, frank, and free disclosure by the latter of every circumstance, which may be presumed to be material, not merely to the interests, but to the fair exercise of the judgment, of the client.". We doubt that the deterrence of "judicial dereliction" that would be achieved by an automatic reversal rule is significantly greater. And that is so. 3-7. Id., at 481. 390, 393. 1386, 1390 (No. It must be said, however, that the language of Sullivan itself does not clearly establish, or indeed even support, such expansive application. Von Moltke, 322 U.S., at 722. The presumption was justified because joint representation of conflicting interests is inherently suspect, and because counsel's conflicting obligations to multiple defendants "effectively sea[l] his lips on crucial matters" and make it difficult to measure the precise harm arising from counsel's errors. A judge who knows or should know that counsel for a criminal defendant facing, or engaged in, trial has a potential conflict of interests is obliged to enquire into the potential conflict and assess its threat to the fairness of the proceeding. It would be a major departure to say that the trial judge must step in every time defense counsel appears to be providing ineffective assistance, and indeed, there is no precedent to support this proposition. When Mickens had no counsel, the trial judge had a duty to "make a thorough inquiry and to take all steps necessary to insure the fullest protection of" his right to counsel. Id., at 14. See Holloway, supra, at 484; Glasser, 383 U.S. 375, 386-387 (1966) (judge's duty to conduct hearing as to competency to stand trial). This kind of breakdown in the criminal justice system creates, at a minimum, the appearance that the proceeding will not "`reliably serve its function as a vehicle for determination of guilt or innocence,'" and the resulting "`criminal punishment'" will not "`be regarded as fundamentally fair.' The purpose of our Holloway and Sullivan exceptions from the ordinary requirements of Strickland, however, is not to enforce the Canons of Legal Ethics, but to apply needed prophylaxis in situations where Strickland itself is evidently inadequate to assure vindication of the defendant's Sixth Amendment right to counsel. The code is intended not as a set of "rules" but as a resource for ethical decision-making. February 28, 2023, 10:26 AM. Unfortunately, because Mickens was not informed of the fact that his appointed attorney was the lawyer of the alleged victim, the questions whether Mickens would have waived this conflict and consented to the appointment, or whether governing standards of professional responsibility would have precluded him from doing so, remain unanswered. See ante, at 11-13. Lest today's holding be misconstrued, we note that the only question presented was the effect of a trial court's failure to inquire into a potential conflict upon the Sullivan rule that deficient performance of counsel must be shown. First, this is the kind of representational incompatibility that is egregious on its face. See Wheat v. United States, 486 U.S. 153, 160 (1988); Wood v. Georgia, 450 U. S. 261, 272 (1981); Cuyler v. Sullivan, 446 U. S. 335, 347 (1980). Dretke, an infamous capital case involving racial discrimination in jury selection. In retrospect, it seems obvious that the death penalty might have been avoided by acknowledging Mickens' involvement, but emphasizing the evidence suggesting that their sexual encounter was consensual. participated in it had an impermissible conflict of interest, making Pinochet an important case on judicial bias and disqualification. The first step toward seeing where the majority goes wrong is to recall that the Court in Wood said outright what I quoted before, that Cuyler "mandates a reversal when the trial court has failed to make an inquiry even though it `knows or reasonably should know that a particular conflict exists.' 79-6027, at72 (transcript of Jan. 26, 1979, probation revocation hearing).6 The Wood Court also knew that a motion stressing equal protection was not filed by defense counsel until two weeks after the revocation hearing, on the day before probation was to be revoked and the defendants locked up, App. Id., at 478-480. The District Judge reviewing the federal habeas petition in this case found that the state judge who appointed Bryan Saunders to represent petitioner Mickens on a capital murder charge knew or should have known that obligations stemming from Saunders's prior representation of the victim, Timothy Hall, potentially conflicted. But counsel's failure to object posed a greater--not a lesser--threat to Mickens' Sixth Amendment right. Cuyler, 446 U.S., at 348 ("[A] defendant who raised no objection at trial must demonstrate that an actual conflict of interest adversely affected his lawyer's performance" (footnote omitted)). There is no dispute before us as to the appointing judge's knowledge. The case was presented and argued on the assumption that (absent some exception for failure to inquire) Sullivan would be applicable--requiring a showing of defective performance, but not requiring in addition (as Strickland does in other ineffectiveness-of-counsel cases), a showing of probable effect upon the outcome of trial. The court said in the 2014 case that a lawyer who faces a conflict between two current clients can't avoid current-client conflict rules by dropping one client "like a hot potato." What Is the Agency Problem? The District Court concluded that the prosecution's case, coupled with the defendant's insistence on testifying, foreclosed the strategies suggested by petitioner after the fact. or The judge did enquire into this alleged conflict and accepted defense counsel's rejoinder that such a conflict was not relevant to a hearing on whether probation should be revoked for inability to pay and that any such agreement to pay fines for violating the law would surely be unenforceable as a matter of public policy. Alex Murdaugh's former law partner said Tuesday that he is past his anger over millions of dollars stolen from the firm, as the final witnesses in the South Carolina . Beth A. Rosenson, University of Florida. Id., at 489-490. Scalia, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Rehnquist, C.J., and O'Connor, Kennedy, and Thomas, JJ., joined. Petitioner filed a federal habeas petition alleging, inter alia, that he was denied effective assistance of counsel because one of his court-appointed attorneys had a conflict of interest at trial. 435 U.S., at 477. This was a crucial omission--a finding of forcible sodomy was an absolute prerequisite to Mickens' eligibility for the death penalty.3 Of course, since that strategy would have led to conviction of a noncapital offense, counsel would have been unable to persuade the defendant to divulge the information necessary to support such a defense and then ultimately to endorse the strategy unless he had earned the complete confidence of his client. The distinguished human rights lawyer Geoffrey Bindman has been fined 12,000 by a disciplinary tribunal for breach of confidence and conflict of interest in handling a high profile racism. We believe it eminently performs that function in the case at hand, and that Justice Breyer is mistaken to think otherwise. 23-25. See ante, at 5. 11-14. Id., at 347-348. We will never know whether Mickens would have received the death penalty if those violations had not occurred nor precisely what effect they had on Saunders' representation of Mickens.10 We do know that he did not receive the kind of representation that the Constitution guarantees. Id., at 202-217; Lodging to App. Since the Wood judge's duty was unlike the Holloway judge's obligation to take care for the future, it would have made no sense for the Wood Court to impose a Holloway remedy. Conflict of interest is a serious problem which affects the objectiveness of the decisions and activity of the officials. We use Wood v. Georgia, 450 U.S. 261, 267, 272 (1981). Hence, if an investment bank takes any actions which are in their own interest but not in the interest of their client, then such an action can be called a "conflict of interest.". An "actual conflict," for Sixth Amendment purposes, is a conflict of interest that adversely affects counsel's performance. Ibid. Third, the Commonwealth itself created the conflict in the first place. The Wood defendants were convicted of distributing obscene material as employees of an adult bookstore and theater, after trials at which they were defended by privately retained counsel. The Sixth Amendment protects the defendant against an ineffective attorney, as well as a conflicted one. Both Sullivan itself, see id., at 348-349, and Holloway, see 435 U.S., at 490-491, stressed the high probability of prejudice arising from multiple concurrent representation, and the difficulty of proving that prejudice. [315 U.S.], at 75. See 74 F.Supp. We have done the same. Id., at 478-480. Only one of the council members, Matt Grocott voted no, citing what he saw as a significant conflict of interest. What is clear from Strickland and Holloway is that the right against ineffective assistance of counsel has as much to do with public confidence in the professionalism of lawyers as with the results of legal proceedings. App. At FindLaw.com, we pride ourselves on being the number one source of free legal information and resources on the web. '' for Sixth Amendment purposes, is a serious problem which affects the of. A reviewing Court, our role is not to speculate about counsel 's alleged dereliction at the phase. 787, 811-812 ( 1987 ) ( plurality opinion ) Cancel '' on the right-hand side s saw... ( ED Va. 1999 ) ( 1981 ) division of loyalties that affected famous conflict of interest cases 's motives about., you can change your plan at any time online in the first place also owned a commercial property it! Saw a & # x27 ; s directors saw a & # x27 ; for.! 450 U.S. 261, 267, 272 ( 1981 ) at any time online in the Settings & section... 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