Explore ethical challenges and guidelines for lawyers during negotiations, focusing on the ABA Model Rules and real-world hypotheticals.
As lawyers, we negotiate on behalf of clients practically every day. You know the legal ethics rules require you to be truthful, but how do you apply those general pronouncements in a context where puffing, posturing, and concealing one’s bottom line are more the rule than the exception?
This program uses a hypothetical negotiation between lawyers representing a writer seeking to sell a script and a film studio seeking to buy it to illustrate how the ethics rules apply when lawyers act as negotiators. Participants will walk away with concrete, practical advice, including: What you can and cannot misrepresent or conceal in a negotiation and why; how to handle tricky issues such as estimates of price or value, willingness to compromise, bottom lines, and settlement authority; what statements of law or fact may be considered “material” in negotiations; and when puffing, posturing, and exaggerating cross the line.
Rules covered include: ABA Model Rules 1.3, 2.1, 4.1 & 8.4; California Bus. and Prof. Code §§ 6068 (d), 6106 & 6128(a); California Attorney Guidelines of Civility and Professionalism (2007).
Legal Technology & Education
New Media Legal Publishing, Inc. is a legal publishing company based in Los Angeles, California, that develops, produces, markets, and distributes innovative legal education content for law firms and companies. For more information about NMLP and its products, please visit http://www.newmedialegal.com .
Senior Vice President, Business Affairs, Sony Pictures Entertainment
Zach McGee is a Senior Vice President of Business Affairs for Sony Pictures Entertainment in Los Angeles, where he negotiates distribution deals for feature films and television series. Before joining Sony Pictures, Zach held senior legal positions in-house at NBCUniversal and Miramax. Zach began his career as a law clerk for the Honorable Michael B. Mukasey, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He also worked as an associate at Davis Polk in New York, New York, and Menlo Park, California. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and he earned his Master's in Business Administration from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Zach is also a successful entrepreneur and the founder of educational content companies within the legal field.
