Can an Attorney for a Nonprofit Disclose Info re Unlawful Diversion of Charitable Assets to Attorney General?
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to consider an interesting legal ethics issue:
“When counsel for a nonprofit corporation believes that charitable assets are being unlawfully diverted, may counsel disclose this information to the Attorney General’s office, as parens patriae for the public to whom the charity and its counsel owe a fiduciary duty?”
The case? Well, that is a bit of a mystery, as the parties’ names have been redacted, and the factual basis for the petition has been deleted from the publically available record. The court permits amicus briefs by 3/23/15. If you wade past blank pages 2 through 11 of the Petition for Permission to Appeal, there are a few tantalizing clues about the context on pages 12 through 14.
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