Amended by Stats. 2025, Ch. 405, Sec. 6. (SB 253) Effective January 1, 2026.
(a)It shall constitute cause for the imposition of discipline of an attorney within the meaning of this chapter for an attorney to do any of the following:
(1)Expressly or impliedly condition the performance of legal services for a current or prospective client upon the client’s willingness to engage in sexual relations with the attorney.
(2)Employ coercion, intimidation, or undue influence in entering into sexual relations with a client.
(3)Continue representation of a client with whom the attorney has sexual relations if the sexual relations cause the attorney to perform legal services incompetently in violation of Rules 1.1 and
1.3 of the Rules of Professional Conduct of the State Bar of California, or if the sexual relations would, or would be likely to, damage or prejudice the client’s case.
(b)Subdivision (a) shall not apply to sexual relations between attorneys and their spouses or persons in an equivalent domestic relationship or to ongoing consensual sexual relationships that predate the initiation of the attorney-client relationship.
(c)Where an attorney in a firm has sexual relations with a client but does not participate in the representation of that client, the attorneys in the firm shall not be subject to discipline under this section solely because of the occurrence of those sexual relations.
(d)For the purposes of this section, “sexual relations” means sexual intercourse or the touching of an intimate part of another person
for the purpose of sexual arousal, gratification, or abuse.
(e)Any complaint made to the State Bar alleging a violation of subdivision (a) shall be verified under oath by the person making the complaint.
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