You see, your honor, it’s not impropriety to sleep with your client, that’s just called good customer service.

Zenas Zelotes is/was a bankruptcy lawyer in Connecticut who is currently on ethics charges for allegedly having an affair with a woman he was representing in a divorce suit. He is currently appealing potential disciplinary action on the grounds that he alleges that being in a loving relationship with your client will actually improve the quality of representation.

Zelotes states that his relationship was intimate, though he never goes as far as saying it was sexual in nature. He explained why he thought an intimate relationship with clients is not problematic. “When you are representing someone you have love and affection for, you’re going to work twice as hard and there’s no question about it. It is not a detriment to the relationship,” Zelotes reportedly said. “My advice to a woman going through a divorce is, find a competent trial lawyer and make him your boyfriend.”

Zelotes, who has a history of ethics complaints and other charges, is saying he’s willing to take this all the way to the US Supreme Court if necessary.

(Source: ABA Journal)