No matter how many subpoenas you may serve on others during your career, being on the receiving end of a subpoena is sure to quicken your heart rate. There are situations in which a lawyer’s work for a client has made the lawyer into a witness, such as when a lawyer prepares an estate plan for a client who is later alleged not to have been competent at the time the plan was executed. The client may have agreed to settle a matter and then attempted to undo the settlement, raising a question of whether the lawyer had authority to settle the case. A former client may be obstructing discovery. Sometimes, aggressive opposing counsel simply wants to make a lawyer nervous and try to interfere with the attorney-client relationship. 

Whatever the underpinnings of the subpoena, there are important questions to consider about how to respond, whether the information being sought is confidential or privileged, or whether the lawyer has actually done something wrong that could lead to an ethics investigation or malpractice claim later. It may be that with a brief consultation, you can handle the rest of the matter yourself. It may also be that since receiving the subpoena your anxiety has been so high that you need someone to advise you and counsel you if the deposition takes place. We’ve been down this road before with lawyers and we can help.