In re Lanza
Supreme Court of New Jersey
322 A.2d 445 (1974)
Attorney Guy Lanza (defendant) represented Elizabeth Greene in selling her home to James and Joan Connolly, with a separate broker (not Lanza) drafting the sales contract; only after the contract was drafted did Lanza agree, without telling Greene, to also represent the Connollys in completing the purchase. At closing, the Connollys said they'd be $1,000 short but would postdate a check for a month later, which Greene accepted; when Greene tried to deposit that check, the Connollys refused to honor it, citing a $1,000 cellar-flooding repair cost, and when Greene contacted Lanza about it, he took no action. The Bergen County Ethics Committee (plaintiff) brought this disciplinary action against Lanza.
Whether an attorney may ethically represent both a home seller and the buyers in the same real estate transaction, and whether failing to disclose that dual representation to the seller before undertaking it violates ethics rules even if the attorney avoided actual dual representation during contract negotiation.