MRPC Rule 2.1

In representing a client, a lawyer shall exercise independent professional judgment and shall

render candid advice. In rendering advice, a lawyer may refer not only to law but to other

considerations such as moral, economic, social, and political factors that may be relevant to the

client’s situation.

Scope of Advice.

A client is entitled to straightforward advice expressing the lawyer’s honest assessment. Legal

advice often involves unpleasant facts and alternatives that a client may be disinclined to

confront. In presenting advice, a lawyer endeavors to sustain the client’s morale and may put

advice in as acceptable a form as honesty permits. However, a lawyer should not be deterred

from giving candid advice by the prospect that the advice will be unpalatable to the client.

Advice couched in narrowly legal terms may be of little value to a client, especially where

practical considerations, such as cost or effects on other people, are predominant. Purely

technical legal advice, therefore, can sometimes be inadequate. It is proper for a lawyer to refer

to relevant moral and ethical considerations in giving advice. Although a lawyer is not a moral

advisor as such, moral and ethical considerations impinge upon most legal questions and may

decisively influence how the law will be applied.

A client may expressly or impliedly ask the lawyer for purely technical advice. When such a

request is made by a client experienced in legal matters, the lawyer may accept it at face value.

When such a request is made by a client inexperienced in legal matters, however, the lawyer’ s

responsibility as advisor may include indicating that more is involved than strictly legal

considerations.

Matters that go beyond strictly legal questions may also be in the domain of another profession.

Family matters can involve problems within the professional competence of psychiatry, clinical

psychology, or social work; business matters can involve problems within the competence of the

accounting profession or of financial specialists. Where consultation with a professional in

another field is itself something a competent lawyer would recommend, the lawyer should make

such a recommendation. At the same time, a lawyer’s advice at its best often consists of

recommending a course of action in the face of conflicting recommendations of experts.

Offering Advice.

In general, a lawyer is not expected to give advice until asked by the client. However, when a

lawyer knows that a client proposes a course of action that is likely to result in substantial

adverse legal consequences to the client, the duty to the client under Rule 1.4 may require that

the lawyer act if the client’s course of action is related to the representation. A lawyer ordinarily

has no duty to initiate investigation of a client’s affairs or to give advice that the client has

Michigan Rules of Professional Conduct 52 Updated with MSC order(s)

indicated is unwanted, but a lawyer may initiate advice to a client when doing so appears to be in

the client’s interest.