Don’t give informal legal advice to friends or family

You’re approached at an informal gathering about a legal matter that a friend has.  Giving informal legal advice to friends or family is like looking down the barrel of a gun to see if it is loaded. It can be tempting at a party or family event, but it could be harmful to both yourself and the receiver of the advice. Your advice, given casually, may be less well thought-out than usual, or not backed by needed research. Also, you could be creating a conflicts issue for yourself by giving advice to a person who has not been through a conflicts of interest check first.