The Supreme Court Acts!

Pursuant to the petition to the Supreme Court discussed last week in this blog, the Supreme Court of Hawaii has proposed new language for Rule 1.2(d) of the Hawaii Rules of Professional Conduct so that local lawyers can advise clients who are medical dispensaries of marijuana. The proposal states:

RULE 1.2. SCOPE OF REPRESENTATION AND ALLOCATION OF AUTHORITY BETWEEN CLIENT AND LAWYER

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d) A lawyer shall not counsel a client to engage, or assist a client, in conduct that the lawyer knows is criminal or fraudulent, but a lawyer may discuss the legal consequences of any proposed course of conduct with a client and may counsel or assist a client to make a good faith effort to determine the validity, scope, meaning, or application of the law, and may counsel or assist a client regarding conduct expressly permitted by Hawaii law, provided that the lawyer counsels the client about the legal consequences, under other applicable law, of the client’s proposed course of conduct.

Public comments to the proposed rule should be submitted, in  writing, no later than Friday, October 16, 2015.