Wisconsin Supreme Court rules implementation of new Rules of Professional Conduct effective July 1, 2007

On Oct. 25, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, in open administrative session, adopted nearly final revisions to Chapter 20, the Rules of Professional Conduct for Wisconsin Attorneys. The supreme court has been studying the recommendations from a court-appointed committee to modify Chapter 20 in light of the changes made to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct proposed by the ABA Ethics 2000 Commission. At its last open administrative conference, the court decided that the new Rules of Professional Conduct will be effective July 1, 2007, giving the State Bar of Wisconsin a six-month window to communicate the new Rule changes to Wisconsin lawyers.

The Court has made a final decision on the majority of changes to Chapter 20. A summary of the changes can be found in the recent article from the July edition of the Wisconsin Lawyer entitled "Overview: Court's Proposed Changes to Attorney Conduct Rules."

The court reserved time to consider possible changes to the Comment to SCR 20:1.5 on fees as well as the Comment on SCR 20:8.4 regarding lawyer misconduct. In addition, the court will continue to review the proposed Rule Changes as they affect municipal lawyers that prosecute matters on behalf of local government entities. It is anticipated that a final decision will be made on these areas at an open administrative conference in early December.

The court has made some minor changes to the March, 2006 draft of the proposed Rule Changes document and will publish a final draft of the Rules in late December or early January.

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