# Committee on Professional Ethics & Conduct of the Iowa State Bar Ass'n v. Mollman

> Supreme Court of Iowa · June 17, 1992 · 488 N.W.2d 168

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9857775

## Case

- **Full name:** COMMITTEE ON PROFESSIONAL ETHICS AND CONDUCT OF THE IOWA STATE BAR ASSOCIATION, Appellee, v. Michael L. MOLLMAN, Appellant
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Iowa
- **Decided:** June 17, 1992
- **Citations:** 488 N.W.2d 168; 1992 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 258; 1992 WL 133289
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Carter
- **Judges:** McGiyerin, Carter, Neuman, Snell, Andreasen
- **Cited by:** 3 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9857775

## Opinion text

CARTER, Justice
(concurring specially).
I concur in result. I believe that, irrespective of whether attorney Mollman communicated a disclaimer of any potential attorney-client relationship, Johnson nevertheless was relying on Mollman for legal advice. For that reason, he undoubtedly made statements that otherwise would not have been forthcoming. I believe that Mollman’s conduct therefore violated DR 4-101(B) (lawyer shall not knowingly use the confidence or secret of a client to lawyer’s own advantage).
*174 I do not, however, share the court’s reluctance to squarely pass on the validity of ABA Formal Opinion 337 or Committee on Professional Ethics and Conduct Formal Opinion 83-16 (1982) vis-a-vis the Iowa Code of Professional Responsibility for Lawyers. I believe that, in most instances, the practices that those opinions prohibit more nearly foster a search for truth and honest dealing than do the prophylactic rules that those opinions lay down. Consequently, as presently written, I would not approve those opinions as guidelines to which Iowa lawyers must give allegiance.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9857775. Public record. Not legal advice.