Can an attorney represent a client zealously if it is agreed in advance not to go to court?
By entering into a collaborative law participation agreement attorneys and their clients have made the considered choice to limit the attorney s role within the contractual relationship to that of providing representation for settlement purposes, only. Nothing in the Canons of Ethics precludes such a limitation. In stepping out of the adversarial process, the collaborative attorney does not give up the role of advocate for his or her client. The collaborative law attorney is representing his or her client zealously, not only to achieve a short term goal, but to realize the best result in the long run.
