Inside Counsel, Outside the Lines: Navigating California’s Ethics Rules for In-House Lawyers

Inside Counsel, Outside the Lines: Navigating California’s Ethics Rules for In-House Lawyers 

In-house counsel face a unique set of ethical challenges that traditional law firm attorneys rarely encounter. In this fast-paced, practical session, Jen Shaw, one of California’s leading employment-law and ethics educators, breaks down the complex obligations that arise when your “client” is an organization rather than an individual.

 Through real-world examples and interactive discussion, attendees will learn how to: 

• Navigate California Rule of Professional Conduct (Organization as Client) and related confidentiality and privilege rules
• Preserve privilege when business and legal advice overlap
• Manage conflicts across subsidiaries, affiliates, and executives
• Deliver effective Upjohn warnings during investigations
• Avoid multi-jurisdiction and technology-competence pitfalls that can expose in-house teams to risk 

Whether you advise leadership, manage compliance, or oversee internal investigations, this one-hour program offers clear, California-specific guidance to help you protect your organization—and your professional license—with confidence.  (It’s also worth 1 hour of MCLE Ethics credit!). 

By the end of this program, participants will be able to: 

1. Apply California’s Rules of Professional Conduct—especially Rules 1.6, 1.7, 1.9, and 1.13—to the unique context of in-house practice, where the client is the organization
2. Preserve attorney-client privilege and work-product protection in communications that mix business and legal advice, including those involving consultants, affiliates, or public relations professionals
3. Identify and manage conflicts of interest that arise from dual roles, complex corporate structures, or concurrent representations of executives, subsidiaries, and affiliates
4. Conduct privileged internal investigations ethically, including delivering effective Upjohn warnings, maintaining confidentiality, and complying with California’s two-party consent recording laws
5. Recognize and mitigate emerging ethical risks in multijurisdictional practice and technology use, including data privacy, AI tools, and remote legal work across state lines