Dear Shannon:

Seems to me that, as an attorney, he should already be aware of the law in the circumstance you describe.  Having said that, I, too, would have misgivings about signing off on anything that might come back to bite me in the a**.

We're constantly being told that as paralegals, we can only act under the direction and supervision of a lawyer.  However, I don't advocate simply standing back and saying, "I was only following orders", as I believe it is unethical for us to close our eyes to obvious violations of the law.  I always apply the Grandma Test, which goes like this: if I told my Grandma about this, would she approve?

Bottom line, if it wouldn't be cool with Grandma, I wouldn't do it.  It's not worth risking my livelihood just to please one client.

But, that's just me.

Regards,
Scott Perry