Lawyer SMC Lawyer Certification 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which rule governs an attorney's duty to keep clients reasonably informed about the status of their matter?
- Model Rule 1.1
- Model Rule 1.4 (Correct answer)
- Model Rule 1.6
- Model Rule 3.4
Correct answer: Model Rule 1.4
Model Rule 1.4 requires attorneys to keep clients reasonably informed and promptly respond to requests for information.
Question 2: In U.S. federal court, the 'but-for' causation standard is most commonly applied in which type of claim?
- Title VII disparate treatment discrimination (Correct answer)
- Negligence per se
- Strict products liability
- Constitutional due process violations
Correct answer: Title VII disparate treatment discrimination
The Supreme Court held in Gross v. FBL Financial that 'but-for' causation applies to disparate treatment claims under the ADEA, a standard extended to Title VII contexts.
Question 3: An attorney holds client funds in an IOLTA account. Commingling personal funds with client funds is:
- Permitted if the amounts are small
- Prohibited under professional conduct rules (Correct answer)
- Allowed during the first 30 days of representation
- Acceptable with written client consent
Correct answer: Prohibited under professional conduct rules
Commingling personal and client funds in an IOLTA account is strictly prohibited by Model Rule 1.15.
Question 4: Which of the following best describes the 'mailbox rule' in contract formation?
- An offer is revoked when the revocation is mailed
- Acceptance is effective when properly dispatched, not when received (Correct answer)
- Contracts must be mailed to be enforceable
- Written contracts override oral agreements upon mailing
Correct answer: Acceptance is effective when properly dispatched, not when received
The mailbox rule provides that acceptance of an offer is effective at the moment it is properly sent, not when received.
Question 5: Under the Sixth Amendment, the right to effective assistance of counsel is violated when counsel's performance is deficient AND:
- The defendant is indigent
- The deficiency prejudiced the outcome (Correct answer)
- The trial lasted more than one day
- The charge is a felony
Correct answer: The deficiency prejudiced the outcome
Under Strickland v. Washington, both deficient performance and resulting prejudice must be proven to establish ineffective assistance.
Question 6: An attorney who represents a corporation is primarily obligated to:
- The individual shareholders directly
- The corporation as an entity (Correct answer)
- The board of directors personally
- The CEO as the client's representative
Correct answer: The corporation as an entity
Model Rule 1.13 establishes that when representing an organization, the lawyer's client is the organization itself, not its constituents.
Question 7: Which equitable doctrine allows a court to reform a written contract that fails to reflect the true intent of both parties due to mutual mistake?
- Rescission
- Restitution
- Reformation (Correct answer)
- Estoppel
Correct answer: Reformation
Reformation permits a court to rewrite a contract to reflect the parties' actual mutual intent when the written document contains a mutual mistake.
Lawyer SMC Lawyer Certification 3
Which rule governs an attorney's duty to keep clients reasonably informed about the status of their matter?