In Re Sanders

When a lawyer is or may be a witness necessary to establish an essential fact, Texas Disciplinary Rule of Professional Conduct 3.08 prohibits the lawyer from acting as both an advocate and a witness in an adjudicatory proceeding. In this divorce and child-custody dispute, the relator husband could not afford to pay his attorney and agreed to perform carpentry work on her law office to help defray his legal costs. Relator’s wife moved to disqualify his attorney, claiming that, as the husband’s employer, she had become a material fact witness in the case. We must decide whether the trial court…