{"id":158114,"date":"2026-07-24T12:25:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T20:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/07\/24\/new-jersey-has-a-message-for-lawyers-dont-sleep-with-your-clients\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T12:25:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T20:25:31","slug":"new-jersey-has-a-message-for-lawyers-dont-sleep-with-your-clients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/07\/24\/new-jersey-has-a-message-for-lawyers-dont-sleep-with-your-clients\/","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey Has A Message For Lawyers: Don\u2019t Sleep With Your Clients"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed. note<\/u>: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0Quote of the Day<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Association believed that maintaining the existing rules that have been applied on a case-by-case approach that focused on the effect of the relationship on the representation would better address the nuances and limited exceptions that inevitably arise, while continuing to protect clients and preserve the integrity of the profession.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/i><\/span> Norberto Garcia, president of the New Jersey State Bar Association, in a statement issued<\/a> after the New Jersey Supreme Court adopted an ethics rule<\/a> broadly prohibiting attorneys from engaging in sexual relationships with clients. Existing sexual relationships that predate the attorney-client relationship are exempt from the rule. The New Jersey State Bar Association had opposed the blanket prohibition, favoring the existing case-by-case approach. At an earlier hearing on the proposed rule, Garcia said, \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s ever a good idea to have sexual relations with the client. But the state bar has a concern that the blanket rule would not catch all the exceptions and nuances and would result in confusion.\u201d The new rule takes effect on September 1, 2026.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Staci Zaretsky<\/a> is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky<\/a>, X\/Twitter<\/a>, and Threads<\/a>, or connect with her on LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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The post New Jersey Has A Message For Lawyers: Don\u2019t Sleep With Your Clients<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Ed. note<\/u>: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0Quote of the Day<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Association believed that maintaining the existing rules that have been applied on a case-by-case approach that focused on the effect of the relationship on the representation would better address the nuances and limited exceptions that inevitably arise, while continuing to protect clients and preserve the integrity of the profession.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/i> Norberto Garcia, president of the New Jersey State Bar Association, in a statement issued<\/a> after the New Jersey Supreme Court broadly prohibiting attorneys from engaging in sexual relationships with clients. Existing sexual relationships that predate the attorney-client relationship are exempt from the rule. The New Jersey State Bar Association had opposed the blanket prohibition, favoring the existing case-by-case approach. At an earlier hearing on the proposed rule, Garcia said, \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s ever a good idea to have sexual relations with the client. But the state bar has a concern that the blanket rule would not catch all the exceptions and nuances and would result in confusion.\u201d The new rule takes effect on September 1, 2026.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Staci Zaretsky<\/a> is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky<\/a>, X\/Twitter<\/a>, and Threads<\/a>, or connect with her on LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0Quote of the Day. The Association believed that maintaining the existing rules that have been applied on a case-by-case approach that focused on the effect of the relationship on the representation would better address the nuances and limited exceptions that inevitably arise, while continuing to protect clients and preserve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":158100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Staci-Zaretsky-HoA72c.jpg?fit=150%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}