Law Schools

So, Your Law School Classmate Has A Sugar Daddy...

You have to appreciate the paranoia of a law student who takes juicy gossip and turns it into a professional responsibility issue spotter.

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Sugar DaddyNeed some frivolity to take your mind off the impending end of the world? Well, we’ve got you covered.

The anonymous boards on Reddit bring out the most fascinating questions. Take this one from a 1L who seems to know… a lot about the intimate details of her classmate’s love life:

I am currently a 1L in a Virginia law school, and one of my classmates is in a Sugar Daddy/Sugar Baby arrangement with an established attorney. The Daddy is married, no kids, and uses SD/SB relationships to have the sex he cannot get in his marriage. (Apparently they have a mostly platonic marriage that does not satisfy his needs.) He pays her large sums of money for a sexual relationship, with the explicit rule that she is not to contact his wife in any way. From what I understand, it’s “Keep Your Mouth Shut and Have Sex with Me” money. Furthermore this attorney has offered my classmate the opportunity to go on work trips with him as well as other forms of non-monetary compensation.

But this questioner is a worrywart, and is concerned this knowledge has created an ethical obligation:

The Baby has since told several classmates (including me) about her arrangement, even going so far as to disclose the name of the attorney she’s seeing. Thus far, I’ve heard multiple attorneys say that disclosure to the Bar is the best route for success, and that purposefully withholding a potential ethics violation from the bar could involve serious consequences.
I have two questions: 1) Is her relationship with this attorney a sufficient ethics violation to require reporting? How would you classify this relationship (does it constitute prostitution, for example), and do you think the Bar cares to know about those kinds of relationships?
2) If you do think it’s a violation, should I report it, or should I leave it alone? Phrased differently, will biting my tongue hurt me, in the long run? I don’t enjoy the thought of being a whistleblower for something that might ruin someone’s career, but I also don’t feel comfortable being complicit in an unethical situation this early in my career. Any advice you have is appreciated.

In order to answer this loaded question — and you have to appreciate the paranoia of a law student who takes juicy gossip and turns it into a professional responsibility issue spotter — we turned to a real expert. Some of the ethics gurus we asked were turned off by the salaciousness of the question, but perseverance won out, and University of Kentucky Law professor Richard Underwood stepped up to the plate.

Professor Underwood specializes in legal ethics, and has served on the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, and when asked about the Reddit question, well, he had to make a joke:

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If screwing people for money an issue, the legal profession collectively has a problem?

Fair enough. But then Professor Underwood got down to applying the rules:

Most states have aversion of the Model Rules that requires reporting of violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct that reflects adversely on the lawyer’s fitness to practice law, etc., so that gives considerable wiggle room. The definition of misconduct involves some crimes and not others – more wiggle room.

….

Is this the sort of crime (assuming there is a crime at all) that is reportable? I am trying to convince myself that it’s ok not to get involved, and not a good idea to get involved. I would not feel compelled to report.  I seem to recall at least one of our local BigLaw types who had mistresses, although I am not sure what the financial circumstances were. In one case both attended the funeral. It was an open secret.

So it seems this Redditor has the latitude to ignore the problem, which, unless your goal is to be a snitch, is probably for the best.

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Kathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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