SC’s Leonen reminds lawyers: Posting letters from clients prohibited

An associate justice of the Supreme Court on Wednesday reminded lawyers that posting of messages or letters of gratitude from their clients is prohibited.

At a press conference, Justice Marvic Leonen said he noticed lawyers that posted letters from clients who seemed fond of them.

“Absolutely prohibited by our canons that a lawyer posts any communication from the client, including a text message [na] nag papasalamat sa kanya, including legal fees,” Leonen said.

(Absolutely prohibited by our canons that a lawyer will post any communication from the client, including a text message that is thanking them, including legal fees.)

“Kasi may nakita ako, nagpakita siya ng hamper ata iyon na binigay ng kanyang kliente just to magyabang na nag papasalamat ‘yung kanyang client,” he added.

(Because I saw one that showed a hamper that seemed to be from their client just to boast that their client is thanking them.)

Leonen said there may be a need to preserve the confidentiality between lawyers and clients.

“Because once you post, you are actually opening to third parties your communication… the tolerance of the Supreme Court on this has been stretched, I think,” he said.

“And sooner or later baka merong isa or dalawa na ma file-an ng disbarment case dahil they violated their attorney-client privilege,” he added.

(And sooner or later, a disbarment case may be filed against one or two lawyers because they violated attorney-client privilege.)

Leonen said they are also seeking to reform the legal ethics of lawyers.

“[N]agkakaroon ng consultative efforts with the legal profession and substantially binabago namin ang details on legal ethics ng mga abogado. I think this is very important,” he said.

(There are consultative efforts with the legal professions and we are substantially changing the details on the legal ethics of the lawyers. I think this is very important.) — RSJ, GMA Integrated News