A Head Start on the Bar Exam

Yesterday I took the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE), the one segment of the bar exam that prospective lawyers are allowed to take before graduation. It's a two-hour, sixty-question multiple choice exam on ethics. Since I (perhaps foolishly) scheduled the exam in the middle of the semester, I didn't prepare much. I scored 75% on a practice exam, so I figured I could get by on what I remembered from the ethics class I took last summer. I wound up doing a lot of guessing, but I think I'll pass. The worst thing that can happen is that I'll have to pay $60 to take the test again. For the curious, here's an example of a question I got wrong on the practice test:

An attorney represents the wife in a marriage dissolution proceeding that involves bitterly contested issues of property division and child custody. The husband is represented by another lawyer. After one day of trial, the husband, through his lawyer, made a settlement offer. Because of the husband’s intense dislike for the wife’s attorney, the proposed settlement requires that the attorney agree not to represent the wife in any subsequent proceeding, brought by either party, to modify or enforce the provisions of the decree. The wife wants to accept the offer, and her attorney believes that the settlement offer made by the husband is better than any award the wife would get if the case went to judgment. Is it proper for the wife’s attorney to agree that she will not represent the wife in any subsequent proceeding?

A. Yes, because the restriction on the attorney is limited to subsequent proceedings in the same matter.

B. Yes, if the attorney believes that it is in the wife’s best interests to accept the proposed settlement.

C. No, because the proposed settlement would restrict the attorney’s right to represent the wife in the future.

D. No, unless the attorney believes that the wife’s interests can be adequately protected by another lawyer in the future.