First, you can hire a new lawyer and ask the new lawyer to contact the previous lawyer and inform the previous lawyer of your dismissal. Second, you can write a letter to the lawyer informing them that the attorney-client relationship is ending. Co-chair of the legal professions team, Trisha Rich, wrote an article in Law360 titled How Lawyers Can Ethically End a Relationship with a Client. As long as attorney-client relationships exist, so have attorney-client ruptures.
Rich outlines helpful steps worth considering when ending an attorney-client relationship, particularly before the end of an affair. The most common ground is probably personality clash, where there is a breakdown in the lawyer-client relationship. The attorney-client relationship comes to a natural conclusion when the lawyer has completed the services for which he was employed. The Florida Supreme Court has held that, in a civil case, an attorney has the right to terminate the attorney-client relationship and to withdraw with due notice to his client and the approval of the court, whose approval should rarely be withheld and only after it is determined that the withdrawal would interfere with the efficient functioning and suitable from the court.
Talking to a client on the phone, informally at a party, or via email, text message, or other social media could result in an attorney-client relationship. Please note that email communications to the firm through this website do not create an attorney-client relationship between you and the firm. The Model Rules and local procedural rules contain restrictions on how a lawyer can withdraw from an attorney-client relationship. An attorney-client relationship can arise out of inference from the parties' conduct, even without a fee payment or formal agreement.
A lawyer can file a claim for damages against a third party that induces the lawyer's client to end the attorney-client relationship. A lawyer's ability to end an attorney-client relationship is limited by rules of professional conduct.
