The American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility released a formal opinion February 28 that provides guidance on how disqualification rules apply to both current and former government lawyers under the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct.

Formal Opinion 509 interprets Model Rule 1.11, which relates to the conflict-of-interest provisions applicable to currently serving and former government employees and officers who are also lawyers. Paragraph (c) of Rule 1.11 addresses the concern raised when current and former government employees or officers know of confidential government information about a person and could then use that information to the disadvantage of that person.

The model rules define confidential government information narrowly as “information that has been obtained under governmental authority and which, at the time this rule is applied, the government is prohibited by law from disclosing to the public or has a legal privilege not to disclose and which is not otherwise available to the public.”