Business and Professions Code § 6090.5 prohibits an attorney from seeking a client’s written or oral agreement not to file a State Bar complaint against that attorney. The reason for this is the discussion could produce an impermissible chilling effect on the client’s future filing of a State Bar complaint.
Even worse, if you have already done this, you can’t take it back! Withdrawal of your request does not reverse the ethical violation.
“Seeking” an agreement includes any attorney communication to a client proposing or suggesting a prohibited agreement. “Seeking” also may encompass factual recitations in the settlement agreement that the client has not filed a State Bar complaint, or concerning the client’s future intentions regarding filing a State Bar complaint.
The long version (which is a summary of the actual advisory opinion, link at the bottom):
California Business and Professions Code § 6090.5 provides, in relevant part:
(a) It is cause for suspension, disbarment, or other discipline for any member, whether as a party or as an attorney for a party, to agree or seek agreement, that
(1) The professional misconduct or the terms of a settlement of a claim for professional misconduct shall not be reported to the disciplinary agency.
This section applies to all settlements, whether made before or after the commencement of a civil action.
In re McCarthy (Review Dept. 2002) 4 Cal. State Bar Ct. Rptr. 364 involved an attorney who committed defalcation against a business partner while acting as a fiduciary. While attempting to settle the dispute, the attorney offered a settlement term that would have the complaining witness “contact the State Bar to withdraw any claims.” The complaining witness refused, and settlement was never consummated. In disciplinary proceedings, the court held that the attorney’s intent to agree to withdrawal of the State Bar complaint in the civil settlement agreement was itself a violation of section 6090.5. In In re Brockway (Review Dept. 2006) 4 Cal. State Bar Ct. Rptr. 944, an attorney violated section 6090.5(a)(2) when he entered into a settlement agreement resolving a fee dispute in that the client “agreed to settle [the fee] dispute and to withdraw the complaint pending before the State Bar, all in accordance with the terms of this Agreement.”
Business and Professions Code section 6090.5 bars an attorney’s attempt, in settling a dispute with his or her client, to seek or obtain a client’s oral or written agreement not to make a State Bar complaint. Section 6090.5 may also prohibit a lawyer from seeking representations of the client’s intentions or actions regarding filing a complaint with the State Bar. Even a simple contractual factual recitation that the client has not yet made a State Bar complaint in the past may be an ethical violation since it could produce a chilling effect on the client’s future actions. Once a lawyer seeks such an oral or written agreement, the withdrawal of that request will not cure the ethical violation.
The full ethics opinion can be found here.