Civility: Do Lawyers Have a Duty to Negotiate in Good Faith?

In the latest program in this popular series, Zach McGee discusses the California Attorney Guidelines of Civility and Professionalism, which reflect how the California State Bar thinks that lawyers should practice law, in the context of answering the question: Do lawyers have a duty to negotiate in good faith? Using a fun hypothetical negotiation between lawyers, Zach illustrates the differences between the California State Bar’s aspirational guidance that lawyers negotiate in good faith and the black-letter law and legal ethics rules that require only that lawyers refrain from knowingly making false statements of material fact or law or otherwise engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.