- 12 - to which it had agreed. Respondent contends that the parties entered into a valid agreement and the circumstances of this case do not warrant the setting aside of that agreement. The estate was represented by an attorney, who was serving as a consultant for respondent on another case. The estate contends that Mr. Harkavy was representing the IRS at the same time he was representing the estate. We have found that the two cases were unrelated and that Mr. Harkavy did not “represent” respondent in the unrelated case. In particular, Mr. Harkavy provided an opinion as to the rights of a partnership under agreements executed with the Community Redevelopment Agency regarding the construction of a 73-story office building. The estate contends that Mr. Harkavy’s relationship with respondent was in violation of model rule 1.7 of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (ABA 2003). Model rule 1.7(a) generally provides that “a lawyer shall not represent a client if the representation involves a concurrent conflict of interest.” In particular, the estate relies on subpart (1) of model rule 1.7(a), which provides that a conflict exists if “the representation of one client will be directly adverse to another client”. Under that provision, a conflict occurs only where the representation of clients is directly adverse. While Mr. Harkavy had an attorney/client relationship with the executor and estate, he did not have an attorney/clientPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011