Are you a lawyer faced with this responsibility but have no idea where to find the necessary information? The following article will provide an overview of print and electronic ethics resources for lawyers.

A copy of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (model rules) is a must for researching legal ethics. Although there are many sources for the model rules, one of the most popular is the ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct (Manual). The manual is a multi-volume loose-leaf binder that contains both the model rules adopted on Aug. 2, 1983, amended through August 2003, and its predecessor, the Model Code of Professional Responsibility (model code) adopted by the American Bar Association in 1969. The manual also serves as the most comprehensive index available for ABA, state and local ethics opinions. The current edition can be accessed in Westlaw's ABA-BNA database.

If you need a handy one-volume paperback version of the model rules, turn to the ABA's Annotated Model Rules of Professional Conduct, 5th ed. This easy-to-use resource provides explanatory information for each rule and citations to cases, opinions, law review articles and sections of the Restatement of the Law: The Law Governing Lawyers. A comparison of the model rules to the model code, as well as correlation tables for related sections between the model rules and model code, are also included.

An electronic version of the model rules can be found on the Internet at the ABA's site, www.abanet.org/cpr/mrpc/model_rules.html. On Lexis, use the "Codes" file of the Ethics library. On Westlaw, go to the ABA-AMRPC database.

Providing the interpretation of the model rules is a function of the ABA's Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility. The committee publishes formal and informal opinions. A formal opinion focuses on a subject of general interest to the bar. An informal opinion is a response to a specific inquiry relating to a particular set of facts.

The opinions are published by the ABA in Opinions of the Committee on Professional Ethics (1967), Informal Ethics Opinions (1975), Formal and Informal Ethics Opinions (1985 and 2000) and Recent Ethics Opinions, a loose-leaf binder containing current opinions. Lexis subscribers can access the opinions in the FOPIN and INFOP files of the Ethics library. Westlaw users will find them in the ABA-ETHOP database.

ETHICSearch, www.abanet.org/cpr/ethicsearch/home.html, is an ethics research service from the ABA that allows lawyers and other legal professionals, including law students and law clerks, to contact research attorneys directly by mail, e-mail, telephone or fax with ethics questions. There is no charge for the initial consultation, but additional research is subject to an hourly rate. Visit the Web site for more details.

As an aid to researching the ABA's opinions, model rules and the model code, use Shepard's Professional and Judicial Conduct Citations. In addition to finding citations to court cases, this Shepard's publication also includes citations from law reviews, legal treatises and the ABA Journal.

Most states pattern their ethics rules after the model rules, but some states continue to follow the model code. Each state's rules can usually be found in a state's code or court rules. The most comprehensive source for state ethics rules is a multi-volume loose-leaf service, The National Reporter on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility (The Reporter). It also contains the full text of selective formal and informal state ethics opinions dating back to 1983. Lexis subscribers can access The Reporter in the ETHOP file of the Ethics library. Coverage on Lexis varies by jurisdiction. For links to state ethics rules and opinions that are available on the Web, use Legalethics.com (http://www.legalethics.com/%20ethics.law) or Cornell's American Legal Ethics Library (www.law.cornell.edu/ethics/), which contains selected full-text ethics rules and opinions from a variety of states.

For a comprehensive secondary source on the topic of legal ethics, consult The Law of Lawyering by Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr. and W. William Hodes. In its third edition, this two volume treatise from Aspen Publishers is a must-have resource for any legal ethics collection. Through its rich commentary, practical examples and current developments, The Law of Lawyering keeps attorneys informed about changes in the laws governing their conduct while helping them understand and apply the rules in their practice.

Pennsylvania lawyers have many options to access the Rules of Professional Conduct, which were first adopted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Oct. 16, 1987, effective April 1, 1988, and most recently revised Aug. 23, 2004. One of the most convenient sources is Pennsylvania Rules of Court: State, published annually by Thomson West. Another handy but often overlooked source is 204 PA Code 81, which can also be found on the Internet at www.pacode.com. For an annotated version use Title 42 Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Annotated, Rules of Civil Procedure, Rules 4001 to end. This volume also contains additional rules relating to professional discipline.

The Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court is the agency responsible for the licensing and disciplining of attorneys in Pennsylvania. Its Web site, http://www.padisciplinaryboard.org/, is a comprehensive online source for all the professional rules, including the Pennsylvania Rules of Disciplinary Enforcement and the Code of Civility. The board's homepage features a searchable database of licensed and disciplined attorneys, recent disciplinary actions and an electronic newsletter.

To find court cases and secondary material that construe the Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct, use Shepard's Pennsylvania Citations. Consult the volume with "Court Rules" on the spine. The superseded Code of Professional Responsibility is also included. When using the electronic Shepard's, enter "Pa. Rules of Prof'l Conduct" followed by the rule number or "Pa. Code of Prof'l Responsibility" followed by the code number.

In Pennsylvania, ethics opinions are issued by the Committee on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and can be obtained by contacting the PBA's Legal Ethics Hotline at 800-932-0311. PBA members can access the opinions directly from the bar's Web site at http://www.pabar.org/. Select opinions are published in The National Reporter on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility, which is covered in the PAETOP file of the Lexis Ethics library back to 1991. On Westlaw, go to the PAETH-EO database, where coverage begins with 1974 for formal opinions and 1990 for informal opinions.

On the local level in Pennsylvania, advisory ethics opinions are issued by the Philadelphia Bar Association's Professional Guidance Committee. Visit their Web site www.philadelphiabar.org/page/EthicsOpinions for opinions back to 1987. The Professional Ethics Committee of the Allegheny Bar Association also issues advisory opinions. Abstracts of approved opinions can be found on the Allegheny Bar Association's Web site, http://www.acba.org/ACBA/press_room/opinions/opinion_ethics.shtml.

Finally, for an excellent overview of ethics research in Pennsylvania, turn to the Pennsylvania Ethics Handbook published by the Committee on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Although this publication has not been updated since 2000, a revision is due to be published in late 2005 or early 2006.

This article provides references to numerous print and electronic resources available to help lawyers keep current with their legal ethics responsibilities, but there are many more treatises, databases and Web sites to explore. Visit a law library in your area or search Jenkins' automated catalog at http://www.jenkinslaw.org/ for a complete list of what you can find at Jenkins Law Library in Philadelphia. For easy access to most of the Web sites referenced in this article, go to ethics.jenkinslaw.org.

NANCY GARNER is head of information and research services at Jenkins Law Library in Philadelphia. A member of the Jenkins reference team since 1988, Garner also conducts the library's orientation program and contributes to the library's online legal research tips. She received her MLS from the University of Pittsburgh. She can be contacted at 215-574-1505 or ngarner@jenkinslaw.org.