"The following standing and special committees of the State Bar of Michigan are established and shall exercise the jurisdiction indicated: . . .

Ethics, Professional and Judicial - shall concern itself with expressing its written opinion concerning the propriety of professional and judicial conduct when requested to do so by the State Bar President, Board of Commissioners, Representative Assembly, Attorney Discipline Board, Attorney Grievance Commission, Judicial Tenure Commission, State Court Administrator, Executive Director, any State Bar Committee, an adjudicative officer concerning an ethical matter arising before the adjudicator, a member of the judiciary or any member of the State Bar who inquires concerning his/her own contemplated conduct. The Committee may recommend amendments to the Michigan Rules of Professional Conduct, the Code of Judicial Conduct and other standards of professional conduct as it deems proper for appropriate approval and adoption, and shall review all such amendments proposed by other State Bar entities before they are acted upon. The Committee shall be divided into subcommittees on professional and judicial ethics. The Chairperson shall chair each subcommittee. The Michigan Judges Association, Michigan Probate Judges Association, and Michigan District Judges Association shall each appoint one member to the 21 member subcommittee on professional ethics and two members to the eleven member subcommittee on judicial ethics. The Referees Association of Michigan shall appoint one member to the subcommittee on judicial ethics."

A. The Committee may recommend amendments to the Michigan Rules of Professional Conduct, the Michigan Code of Judicial Conduct and other standards of professional conduct as it deems proper for appropriate approval and amendments proposed by any other entity or person shall be submitted to the Committee for its review in advance of their being considered for adoption.

B. The Committee may express its written opinion concerning the propriety of professional and judicial conduct.

C. The Committee shall not resolve questions of law.

D. Verbal responses of the Committee, a member of the Committee, or a member of the Committee's staff are not binding on the Committee.

A. The Committee shall be divided into subcommittees on professional and judicial ethics. The Chairperson shall chair each subcommittee. The Michigan Judges Association, Michigan Probate Judges Association and Michigan District Judges Association shall each appoint one member to the 21 member subcommittee on professional ethics and two members to the nine member subcommittee on judicial ethics. The remaining members of the subcommittee on judicial ethics shall be lawyers.

B. Associate members may from time to time be appointed to serve on each Subcommittee pursuant to the Bylaws of the State Bar, Article VI, Sec. 2(c).

A. The Committee may draft proposed amendments to the Michigan Rules of Professional Conduct and the Michigan Code of Judicial Conduct upon its own motion or the request of any person.

B. The Chairperson or the Chairperson's designee shall present proposed amendments to the Representative Assembly or Board of Commissioners in appropriate form.

C. Amendments approved by the Representative Assembly or the Board of Commissioners shall be forwarded by the Executive Director to the Supreme Court with a recommendation for adoption.

A. The subcommittee on professional ethics may draft opinions concerning lawyer ethics and the subcommittee on judicial ethics may draft opinions concerning judicial ethics. In the event an inquiry involves conduct of both lawyers and judges, the Chairperson shall designate a Committee member to draft an opinion to be circulated to both subcommittees.

B. Each subcommittee may express its written opinion when requested to do so by the State Bar President, Board of Commissioners, Representative Assembly, Attorney Discipline Board, Attorney Grievance Commission, Judicial Tenure Commission, State Court Administrator, Executive Director, any State Bar Committee, a member of the judiciary, or any member of the State Bar who inquires concerning his/her own contemplated conduct. The Committee shall not render opinions in response to inquiries from individual members concerning conduct which has already taken place.

C. A subcommittee may express its written opinion in response to a request from an adjudicative officer concerning an ethical matter arising before the adjudicator.

D. The Chairperson and the subcommittees may initiate opinion requests on matters of interest to the bar or which Committee research has shown need clarification or resolution.

A. Requests for opinions shall be submitted to Committee Counsel in writing, and shall identify the inquirer by name, "P" number, address and phone number.

B. Every opinion request shall include as a minimum:

A. In order to encourage members to seek Committee guidance on ethics issues and to facilitate open deliberation of issues among Committee members, identities of inquirers, specific facts of particular opinion requests, and circulated drafts that have not been approved by the Committee are considered confidential and should not be released to persons outside the Committee.

B. A Committee member may seek input from sources outside the Committee regarding the legal issues or general factual background involved in an inquiry when doing so will assist the member in drafting or commenting on an opinion.

C. The Chairperson or Counsel may publicly confirm or deny that a particular ethics issue is the subject of a pending ethics inquiry.

D. Upon request of inquirer, Counsel shall withhold the inquirer's identity from the member assigned to draft the opinion.

A. The scope of an individual opinion is limited to the facts stated in the opinion. The Committee is not a fact-finding body and has no obligation to investigate inquiries beyond the information presented for the Committee's review by the inquirer. The Committee is not required to address all the facts presented, but may limit the scope of an opinion to those facts necessary to resolve the particular inquiry.

B. Opinions of the Committee do not have the force and effect of law and may not be relied upon as an absolute defense to a charge of ethical misconduct.

C. An opinion shall reference the rules, cases and other authorities which bear upon the result reached in the opinion. The Committee does not resolve questions of law, however, opinions may cite to relevant legal authorities which clarify the history, philosophy or application of ethical rules.

A. An informal opinion is prepared and issued by a subcommittee after it has been circulated to Subcommittee members and the Chairperson has resolved any conflicting views. Informal opinions generally deal with situations of limited and individual interest or application. Informal opinions shall bear the designation "I" for "informal" and the opinion number.

B. Formal opinions are prepared by a subcommittee and submitted to the Board of Commissioners. A formal opinion adopted by the State Bar Board of Commissioners reflects the policy of the State Bar. Formal opinions deal with matters of general and substantial interest to the public, address situations which affect a significant number of members of the Bar, or reverse prior formal opinions.

C. The Board of Commissioners shall consider each referral from the Committee and may take the following action:

D. Any opinion which modifies or reverse a prior formal opinion must be submitted to the Board of Commissioners for approval.

A. A subcommittee may on its own motion or upon written request of any member of the bar reconsider any formal or informal opinion. A request for reconsideration by a member of the bar shall state at a minimum:

B. If the subcommittee determines reconsideration is appropriate, a new opinion shall be drafted incorporating distinguishing material. If the subcommittee determines reconsideration is not appropriate, the Chairperson shall notify the inquirer, who may appeal the decision of the subcommittee to the Board of Commissioners by sending a written request to the attention of the Executive Director.

A. The text of all formal opinions and the syllabi of all informal opinions shall be published in the Michigan Bar Journal as soon as practicable after release.

B. A subject matter index of ethics opinions shall be published periodically.

A. Once an ethics opinion has been issued, or a determination h as been made that an opinion will not be issued in a matter, the opinion file shall be closed. In closing an opinion file, legal reference materials shall be removed and catalogued as appropriate and the remaining contents shall be reordered by date of correspondence.

B. A closed opinion file shall be maintained for six months after the date of publication of the opinion in the Michigan Bar Journal, or six months from the date of the determination not to issue an opinion.

C. After six months, the initial inquiry pertaining to each opinion issued shall be retained as a confidential permanent record, and the remainder of the opinion file may be destroyed.