Ethical Duties of “Independent” Counsel for a Hospital’s Resident – New York Personal Injury Law Blog.

Mark Bower presents an excellent hypothetical about the tensions in the relationship between insurer, lawyer and insured – where a hospital’s insurer retains a lawyer to represent the hospital’s employee – a resident – whose version of events contradicts a senior attending – also represented by a lawyer retained by the same insurer.  To save money the “independent counsel” is not authorized to attend settlement discussions (since the resident’s liability if any is the hospital’s vicariously).  Result – nothing out of pocket paid by the resident but the settlement is attributed to the resident, who suffers reputational damage.  Bower discusses how to handle the dilemma.  M.R. 1.8 (f), 5.5 (c)