lawyer has an obligation to prospective client

https://www.tlie.org/confidentiality-obligations-to-prospective-clients-under-texas-ethics-opinion-691/

The facts presented to the Ethics Committee were as follows. Five years ago, Wife approached Lawyer A to discuss retaining Lawyer A to bring a divorce action against her Husband. Wife and Lawyer A met for 45 minutes. Wife declined to retain Lawyer A, and took no further action to divorce Husband. Lawyer B and Lawyer A have been law partners for many years. Recently, Husband asked Lawyer B to represent him in divorcing Wife. Lawyer A did not keep any documentation from his meeting with Wife and stated he did not recall any information shared by Wife during the consultation. Wife refused to consent to Lawyer B’s representation of Husband in divorce or waive any conflict of interest arising from her consultation with Lawyer A.

The Ethics Committee ultimately concluded that Lawyer A had a duty of confidentiality to Wife, which limited his ability to represent Husband in divorce. Accordingly, Lawyer A was prohibited from representing Husband under Rule 1.06(b)(2). And Lawyer A’s disqualifying conflict was imputed to Lawyer B and the other attorneys in the firm.