Although the procedures for litigating a construction lawsuit is, on its face, an adversarial process, the American Bar Association has established Model Rules of Professional Conduct to provide guidance for lawyer conduct to follow while “seek[ing] a result advantageous to its client but consistent with requirements of honest dealings with others.”

These ethics standards apply not only to the interaction between counsel and the representation of their client, but also the retention and communications with an expert witness and attempts to seek disqualification of an expert witness retained by opposing counsel.

This presentation will discuss the extent to which case law addresses the attorney-expert relationship and actions that affect the expert witness’s report and/or testimony to be introduced at trial.