One of the things I've learned watching the Trump saga is that the abiliity of lawyers to quit a client is limited once trial begins. I presume this is to prevent "quit of counsel" from becoming a delay tactic by defendants. "I'm sorry your Honor, it's the dangest thing, but my tenth lawyer just resigned from defending me so I'm gonna need a continuance for another six months while I bring my eleventh lawyer up to speed on my total innocence." The basic theme of most state policies regarding a change in counsel puts the court's needs (for continuity and resolution of the case) first, the client's needs (competent counsel, fair trial) second and the lawyer's interests in distant third. Failure to get paid for example is NOT considered adequate reason to quit a client unless continued representation would materially impair the lawyer's financial condition. Since many attorneys work at law firms that presumably have the cash flow to absorb a few hits, a single client's failure to pay is seldom enough to allow a lawyer to resign from a case if the defendant doesn't agree.

The ABA itemizes the allowable circumstances for terminating a relationship with a client in Model Rule 1.16(b):

americanbar.org - Rule declining or terminating representation

Those rules boil down to:

1) the client persists in a criminal or fraudulent course of action;
2) the client has used the lawyer's services to perpetrate a crime or fraud;
3) the client insists on taking action that the lawyer considers repugnant or with which he fundamentally disagrees;
4) the client fails to fulfill an obligation to the lawyer regarding the lawyer's services (after an appropriate warning of the possible withdrawal);
5) the representation will result in an unreasonable financial burden on the lawyer;
6) the representation has been rendered unreasonably difficult by the client; or
7) other good cause for withdrawal exists.

Personally, I'm starting to think this whole Donald Trump phenomena is turning out to be a vast, masterfully planned conspiracy of the military-legal complex to eventually trigger the full employment of every American who has at any point held a law license. It's almost as if a few really forward-thinking lawyers figured out in the mid-1980s that if they could protect Trump from the consequences of his actons for maybe 20-30 years, they would eventually create a monster so proficient at criming it would produce an exponential explosion of litigation. Sure, a few lawyers working DIRECTLY for Trump would get screwed but thousands of others would rake in millions of dollars for thousands of hours of paid work trying to defend the thousands of secondary idiots sucked into his orbit.

As another post today indicated, another investigation has identified $100 million in unpaid tax obligations on Trump's Chicago property which will likely trigger another $30 million in legal fees and two years of tied up courtrooms attempting to prosecute those charges.

WTH