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2022 Animal L. Comm. Newsl. 1 (2022)

handle is hein.journals/anilawcn2022 and id is 1 raw text is: AB\
AMERICANBARASSOCIA ION
Tort Trial and Insurance
Practice Section
Animal Law
Special Professional Ethics Issue

Clients regularly engage animal law attorneys for issues involving wildlife, farmed
animals, animals used in research or entertainment, and their own individual
companion animals. Although the efforts of an animal protection attorney may be
aimed at bettering the treatment of all animals, specific client goals can vary. This
can lead to unanticipated ethical issues, as set forth in the American Bar Association
(ABA) Model Rules of Professional Conduct and addressed in the examples below.
Attorney Drew Gooder filed a civil complaint on behalf of her clients, the Grubbers,
for veterinary malpractice against a defendant veterinarian and animal clinic. The
Grubbers' cat, Pounce, endured a botched declaw resulting in a severe infection
and the amputation of Pounce's right forepaw. The Grubbers expressed their strong
desire to use Pounce's case in a public campaign to outlaw declawing throughout the
United States. Already having pushed Attorney Gooder into calling a press release at
the time of filing, and with the Grubbers regularly posting updates about the case on
social media, Pounce's case gained national attention and Attorney Gooder began
receiving calls from numerous other clients of the defendant veterinary chain, Cut It
Out Clinic, whose corporation operates from hundreds of locations throughout the
U.S. and focuses on feline declaw and canine devocalization surgeries.
The defendants approach Attorney Gooder with a proposal for settlement including
an unexpectedly high dollar payment to the Grubbers, contingent upon (1) the
removal of all existing and stopping all future social media references to Pounce, (2)
barring the Grubbers and Attorney Gooder from revealing the terms of settlement,
(3) mandating the Grubbers instruct their social media and media contacts not to
disparage the defendants, and (4) barring the Grubbers and Attorney Gooder from
making any disparaging communications about the defendants. Attorney Gooder,

Winter/Spring 2022

AMR Law Group, LLC

Uniting Plaintiff, Defense, Insurance, and Corporate Counsel to Advance the Civil Justice System

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