The Board Professional-Lawyer’s Fiduciary Duty to Protect Fiduciary Duty

A hallmark of the legal profession is the lawyer’s fiduciary duty to the client. Indeed, most of the rules and regulations governing a lawyer’s conduct address various ways in which a lawyer is duty-bound to protect a client’s interests.¹ They range from duties to protect confidentiality and avoid conflicts of interest to those addressing competent representation and diligent communications. The rules also describe how to fulfill these duties depending on the nature of the client (the government, clients with diminished capacity, corporate entities, and the like). However, how do these duties play out when the lawyer is also the institution’s board professional, especially when the governing board itself faces challenges about its own exercise of fiduciary duties?