Cal. Rules of Prof. Conduct, rule 1.8.6 · Chapter 1. Lawyer-Client Relationship
Compensation from One Other than Client
Text — 2026 edition, as the State Bar of California publishes it (read October 22, 2026)
A lawyer shall not enter into an agreement for, charge, or accept compensation for representing a client from one other than the client unless:
(a) there is no interference with the lawyer’s independent professional judgment or with the lawyer-client relationship;
(b) information is protected as required by Business and Professions Code section 6068, subdivision (e)(1) and rule 1.6; and
(c) the lawyer obtains the client’s informed written consent* at or before the time the lawyer has entered into the agreement for, charged, or accepted the compensation, or as soon thereafter as reasonably* practicable, provided that no disclosure or consent is required if:
(1) nondisclosure or the compensation is otherwise authorized by law or a court order; or
(2) the lawyer is rendering legal services on behalf of any public agency or nonprofit organization that provides legal services to other public agencies or the public.
Notes and commentary — not rule text
Comment
[1] A lawyer’s responsibilities in a matter are owed only to the client except where the lawyer also represents the payor in the same matter. With respect to the lawyer’s additional duties when representing both the client and the payor in the same matter, see rule 1.7.
[2] A lawyer who is exempt from disclosure and consent requirements under paragraph (c) nevertheless must comply with paragraphs (a) and (b).
[3] This rule is not intended to abrogate existing relationships between insurers and insureds whereby the insurer has the contractual right to unilaterally select counsel for the insured, where there is no conflict of interest. (See San Diego Navy Federal Credit Union v. Cumis Insurance Society (1984) 162 Cal.App.3d 358 [208 Cal.Rptr. 494].).
[4] In some limited circumstances, a lawyer might not be able to obtain client consent before the lawyer has entered into an agreement for, charged, or accepted compensation, as required by this rule. This might happen, for example, when a lawyer is retained or paid by a family member on behalf of an incarcerated client or in certain commercial settings, such as when a lawyer is retained by a creditors’ committee involved in a corporate debt restructuring and agrees to be compensated for any services to be provided to other similarly situated creditors who have not yet been identified. In such limited situations, paragraph (c) permits the lawyer to comply with this rule as soon thereafter as is reasonably* practicable.
[5] This rule is not intended to alter or diminish a lawyer’s obligations under rule 5.4(c).
Source of truth
- Edition
- 2026 edition, as the State Bar of California publishes it (read October 22, 2026)
- Official file
- https://www.calbar.ca.gov/sites/default/files/portals/0/documents/rules/Rules-of-Professional-Conduct.pdf (PDF pages 28–29)
- Text hash
- sha256 df0c5573db22f8f46ed677db320e521abc69562874721365830caad6ec6a0d6f
- Composed by
- rpc/build 2026-10-22: the State Bar's 2026 PDF (pages 12-71) read by two readers, PyMuPDF glyph positions and pdfminer with the PDF's tagged structure, agreeing on 834 of 843 paragraphs character for character, the other nine (paragraph boundaries only) resolved against the rendered page; 205,485 printed glyphs accounted for; the State Bar's chapter pages a third reading
This rule cites
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Business and Professions Code
California Rules of Professional Conduct
Cited by 2 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Cal. Rules of Prof. Conduct, rule 1.8.6. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
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