Francis Pileggi Authors Article for American Inns of Court on Legal Ethics Rules

Wilmington, Del. (September 5, 2023) – Wilmington Managing Partner Francis G.X. Pileggi recently authored an article for the September/October 2023 issue of The Bencher, a bi-monthly publication of the American Inns of Court. The article, titled “Do Legal Ethics Rules Provide Guidance for Responding to False Accusations?”, addresses the options available to attorneys who are grappling with how to respond to false accusations of wrongful conduct.

Mr. Pileggi opens the article by observing that the question of how lawyers should respond to false accusations “may be the most challenging” he has addressed over the 25 years he has published his ethics column. He writes that, “most lawyers, and most reasonable people” would expect to have some recourse against individuals making a serious false accusation — for instance, “an anonymous and amorphous accusation of racist behavior.”

However, several decisions by Delaware’s top court have curtailed the options available to the falsely accused, Mr. Pileggi notes. In last year’s opinion in Cousins v. Goodier, he writes, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment’s free speech guarantees foreclosed a defamation claim brought by an attorney who was falsely accused of being a racist. And in its 2005 decision in Doe v. Cahill, the article continues, the Delaware high court provided that only in certain circumstances can a defamation plaintiff force disclosure of an anonymous online accuser’s identity.

Finally, Mr. Pileggi writes that the American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct “do not provide clear direction” on how lawyers should reply to false accusations, although the rules offer some guidance on how one  should respond to online attacks. He concludes that there is “no panacea for dealing with false accusations, especially anonymous ones,” but one goal is “not to react in a manner that would run afoul of the aphorism that two wrongs don’t make a right.”

Mr. Pileggi is a member of Lewis Brisbois’ Complex Business & Commercial Litigation Practice. He focuses primarily on high-stakes disputes of corporations, stockholders, members of boards of directors, members and managers of LLCs, and those with managerial or ownership interests in other forms of entities. In addition, since 2004, Mr. Pileggi has maintained the Delaware Corporate & Commercial Litigation Blog, at www.delawarelitigation.com, in which he analyzes key corporate and commercial decisions from Delaware's Supreme Court and Court of Chancery. 

Read the full Bencher article here.