Also known as: associates · associated · associating · associate counsel · associate attorney
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A junior lawyer employed by a law firm who has not attained partner status. The position carries responsibility for client work under supervision while the lawyer remains subject to the firm's policies and ethical oversight.
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Anika Anand, an associate at Alpine Mining's outside counsel, filed a motion containing factual denials unsupported by any evidence. After proper notice the court found a Rule 11 violation. The court sanctioned both Anand and the firm because the firm bears joint responsibility for violations by its associates absent exceptional circumstances.
Abigail Alvarez, an associate at Azure Solutions, testified about statements made by a declarant who had lived with the Alvarez family for years. The court admitted the statements under the family-history exception because the declarant was so intimately associated with the family that the information was likely accurate.
Judge Adams had worked at Atlas Ventures while Amelia Amari, then an associate there, handled the underlying contract dispute. When the same matter came before the court, the judge recused herself because she had been associated with a lawyer who participated substantially in the controversy during that association.
Aaron Adams left Aether Technologies after representing a client. The firm later took on a new matter adverse to that former client. Because Adams had terminated his association, the firm could proceed unless the matter was substantially related and remaining lawyers possessed material confidential information.
A partner at Alpine Mining told clients that associate Angela Acosta was incompetent and should not be retained. The statement lowered Acosta in the estimation of the community and deterred third persons from associating or dealing with her, satisfying the definition of a defamatory communication.
Atlas Ventures held a senior mortgage while Azure Solutions held a junior mortgage on the same property. When both sought a receiver, the senior mortgagee's request took priority because its mortgage contained a rents clause and the junior mortgage did not, even though an associate at the junior mortgagee's firm had argued otherwise.
Yes. Under Rule 11(c)(1), absent exceptional circumstances a law firm is jointly responsible for a violation committed by its associate.
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The firm may do so unless the matter is the same or substantially related and remaining lawyers possess material confidential information protected by Rules 1.6 and 1.9(c).
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A communication is defamatory if it tends to harm the associate's reputation so as to lower the associate in the estimation of the community or to deter third persons from associating or dealing with the associate.
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…harm may be imminent. Mental and physical health may be taxed by child care. There is also the distress, for all concerned, associated with the unwanted child, and there is the problem of bringing a child into a family already unable, psychologically and otherwise, to care for it. In other cases, as in this one, the…