Hinderks Details Ethical Considerations for Attorney Tell-Alls in Legal Intelligencer Column

12.22.2023

Stinson LLP Partner Mark Hinderks authored a column for The Legal Intelligencer, "Lawyers Telling All: When and How Can We Tell the Great Stories of Our Legal Career?"

Hinderks discusses the potential risks that may arise when attorneys publish work about their representation of past clients. He says it is important to think through the risks of publishing and speaking about client matters and provides ethical guidelines for using experiences as an attorney to tell stories that avoid disclosing attorney-client or other protected information.

"First, make sure that your extrapolation from real-life experiences and clients is enough that the readers are not able to connect what or whom you are writing or speaking about to any actual client information you possess," Hinderks writes. "Second, make sure readers understand that what you are conveying is fiction; you might violate Rule 8.4 (c)'s prohibition on engaging in 'conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation' if you attempt to pass off fabricated stories as true-client stories."

Hinderks leads the firm's Legal Ethics & Professional Responsibility practice. He is the author of Dear Ethics Lawyer, a twice-monthly newsletter with questions and answers concerning legal ethics, and a co-founder and presenter of "Ethics for Good," a twice-annual stage show which uses humor, skits and real-world scenarios to teach legal ethics to lawyers. Hinderks has presented more than 135 programs on legal ethics over the past 30 years, has authored many articles and handbook chapters on legal ethics, and has been deeply involved in professional organizations with legal ethics and professional responsibility as their focus.

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