amendments to the Hawaii Rules of Professional Conduct

(3) either reach agreement with the sending lawyer with respect to the
disposition of the material or refrain from using the materials until a definitive
resolution of the proper disposition of the materials is obtained from a court.
COMMENTS:
[1] Responsibility to a client requires a lawyer to
subordinate the interests of others to those of the client, but that
responsibility does not imply that a lawyer may disregard the
rights of third persons. It is impractical to catalogue all such
rights, but they include legal restrictions on methods of
obtaining evidence from third persons and unwarranted
intrusions into privileged relationships, such as the clientlawyer
relationship.
[2] Paragraph (b) recognizes that lawyers sometimes
receive documents that were mistakenly sent or produced by
opposing parties or their lawyers. If a lawyer knows or
reasonably should know that such a document was sent
inadvertently, then this Rule requires the lawyer to promptly
notify the sender and then either reach agreement with the
sending attorney as to the disposition of the document or seek a
ruling from the court as to whether the attorney-client privilege
or work product protection was waived by the disclosure. This
Rule incorporates Formal Opinion No. 39, issued by Hawaii’s
Office of Disciplinary Counsel on April 26, 2001, as well as
provisions suggested in “The Future of Inadvertent Disclosure:
The Lingering Need to Revise Professional Conduct Rules,” P.
Schaefer, Vol. 69 Maryland Law Review 195, 258-259 (2010).
For purposes of this Rule, “document” includes e-mail or other
electronic modes of transmission subject to being read out or
put into readable form.
Rule 5.1. RESPONSIBILITIES OF PARTNERS, MANAGERS, AND
SUPERVISORY LAWYERS.
(a) A partner in a law firm, and a lawyer who individually or together
with other lawyers possesses comparable managerial authority in a law firm,
shall make reasonable efforts to ensure that the firm has in effect measures
giving reasonable assurance that all lawyers in the firm conform to the Rules of
Professional Conduct.
(b) A lawyer having direct supervisory authority over another lawyer
shall make reasonable efforts to ensure that the other lawyer conforms to the
Rules of Professional Conduct.
(c) A lawyer shall be responsible for another lawyer's violation of the
Rules of Professional Conduct if:
(1) the lawyer orders or, with knowledge of the specific conduct,
ratifies the conduct involved; or
(2) the lawyer is a partner or has comparable managerial authority in
the law firm in which the other lawyer practices, or has direct supervisory
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