United States District Court
Northern District Of Illinois
Local Rules
LR83.55.1. Responsibilities of a Partner or Supervisory Lawyer
(a) Each partner in a law firm shall make reasonable efforts to ensure that the
firm has in effect measures giving reasonable assurance that the conduct of all
lawyers in the firm conforms to these rules.
(b) Each lawyer having direct supervisory authority over another lawyer shall make
reasonable efforts to ensure that the other lawyer’s conduct conforms to these rules.
(c) A lawyer shall be responsible for another lawyer’s violation of these rules if:
(1) the lawyer orders or, with knowledge of the specific conduct, ratifies the
conduct involved; or
(2) the lawyer is a partner in the law firm in which the other lawyer practices,
or has direct supervisory authority over the other lawyer, and knows of the
conduct at a time when its consequences can be avoided or mitigated but fails to
take reasonable remedial action.
Committee Comment. Sections (a) and (b) refer to lawyers who have supervisory authority over the
professional work of a firm or legal department of a government agency. This
includes members of a partnership and the shareholders in a law firm organized as
a professional corporation; lawyers having supervisory authority in the law
department of an enterprise or government agency; and lawyers who have
intermediate managerial responsibilities in a firm.
The measures required to fulfill the responsibility prescribed in sections (a)
and (b) can depend on the firm’s structure and the nature of its practice. In a small firm, informal
supervision and occasional admonition ordinarily might be sufficient. In a large firm,
or in practice situations in which intensely difficult ethical problems
frequently arise, more elaborate procedures may be necessary. Some firms, for example,
have a procedure whereby junior lawyers can make confidential referral of
ethical problems directly to a designated senior partner or special committee. See LR83.55.2. Firms, whether large or small, may also rely on continuing legal
education in professional ethics. In any event, the ethical atmosphere of a firm
can influence the conduct of all its members and a lawyer having authority
over the work of another may not assume that the subordinate lawyer will
inevitably conform to the rules.
Subsection (c)(1) expresses a general principle of responsibility for acts of
another. See also LR83.58.4(a).
Subsection (c)(2) defines the duty of a lawyer having direct supervisory
authority over performance of specific legal work by another lawyer. Whether a
lawyer has such supervisory authority in particular circumstances is a question of
fact. Partners of a private firm have at least indirect responsibility for all
work being done by the firm, while a partner in charge of a particular matter
ordinarily has direct authority over other firm lawyers engaged in the matter.
Appropriate remedial action by a partner would depend on the immediacy of the
partner’s involvement and the seriousness of the misconduct. The supervisor is
required to intervene to prevent avoidable consequences of misconduct if the
supervisor knows that the misconduct occurred. Thus, if a supervising lawyer knows that
a subordinate misrepresented a matter to an opposing party in negotiation, the
supervisor as well as the subordinate has a duty to correct the resulting
misapprehension.
Professional misconduct by a lawyer under supervision could reveal a violation
of section (b) on the part of the supervisory lawyer even though it does not
entail a violation of section (c) because there was no direction, ratification
or knowledge of the violation.
Apart from this rule and LR83.58.4(a), a lawyer does not have disciplinary
liability for the conduct of a partner, associate or subordinate. Whether a lawyer
may be liable civilly or criminally for another lawyer’s conduct is a question of law beyond the scope of these rules.