Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board v. Mason James Ouderkirk

WATERMAN, Justice.

How far can a lawyer go to assist a client in preserving assets from a potential creditor? In this appeal, we must decide whether Mason James Ouderkirk violated our prior disciplinary rules 1 in his representation of Rodney Heemstra, a wealthy Iowa farmer who shot and killed his neighbor, Tommy Lyon. Heemstra was charged with first-degree murder and ultimately convicted of voluntary manslaughter. Ouderkirk represented Heemstra at the outset of the criminal proceedings and dur ing part of the civil wrongful-death litigation, which later resulted in a multimillion dollar…