American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct

The ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, created by the American Bar Association (ABA), are a set of rules that prescribe baseline standards of legal ethics and professional responsibility for lawyers in the United States. They were promulgated by the ABA House of Delegates upon the recommendation of the Kutak Commission in 1983. The rules are merely recommendations, or models, (hence the name "Model Rules") and are not themselves binding. However, having a common set of Model Rules facilitates a common discourse on legal ethics, and simplifies professional responsibility training as well as the day-to-day application of such rules. As of 2015^[update], 49 states and four territories have adopted the rules in whole or in part, of which the most recent to do so was the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in March 2015. California is the only state that has not adopted the ABA Model Rules, while Puerto Rico is the only inhabited U.S. Territory that has not adopted them but instead has its own Código de Ética Profesional.

The American Bar Association is a private sector voluntary professional association. As such, it has no lawmaking power or regulatory authority, but it is just like any other nongovernmental bar association. Accordingly, the Model Rules are not legally binding on ABA members or within any particular jurisdiction. However, the Model Rules have been adopted, in whole or in part, and sometimes in variation, as the rules of professional conduct for attorneys in 49 states, the District of Columbia, and four of the five inhabited U.S. territories. The rules of professional conduct or professional responsibility adopted in a particular state are legally enforceable against the lawyers of that state as well as any lawyer practicing there on a pro hac vice basis.

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