Compendium of Professional Responsibility Rules and Standards

The Compendium presents models for ethical and professional conduct and standards for enforcing that conduct that have been developed by the American Bar Association. These models have been used as the foundation for most state regulations and as interpretive guidance for the courts in their resolution of professional responsibility issues. Despite the local variations in the way they have been adopted (occasionally significant), they serve to familiarize the reader with the philosophy of lawyer regulation and can be used to initiate review of substantive issues unfamiliar to the lawyer, student or scholar.

In addition, the Compendium contains a selection of federal Rules and Standards that are commonly needed in the general practice of law, and in practice before the SEC and IRS, and that impact upon a number of ethical rules of conduct, such as the rules regarding competence and meritorious claims and contentions. Information on the composition, jurisdiction and procedures of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility is included to explain how ABA ethics rules are formulated and interpreted. The 2026 Edition includes newly released ethics opinions.

This one volume includes:

• ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct
• ABA Model Code of Professional Responsibility
• ABA Model Code of Judicial Conduct
• ABA Canons of Professional Ethics
• ABA Standards for Imposing Lawyer Sanctions
• ABA Model Rules Related to Multijurisdictional Practice
• ABA Model Rules for Client Protection (Selected)
• ABA Professionalism Codes and Creeds
• ABA Practice Guidelines, Federal Rules and Standards (Selected)
• ABA Formal Ethics Opinions (Selected)

Created in 1978, the Center for Professional Responsibility advances the public interest by promoting and encouraging high ethical conduct and professionalism by lawyers and judges. The Center provides leadership and guidance to the legal profession and the judiciary by developing, interpreting and promoting the implementation of policies and standards that govern the conduct and regulation of lawyers and judges, including examining the challenges and opportunities of today’s global legal environment, and by producing scholarly and other resources. These efforts seek to assure that lawyers and judges perform their duties in a manner that advances respect for the rule of law, the legal process, the legal profession and the judiciary.