Client Communication and Withdrawal After ABA Formal Opinion 516

Jayne Reardon, Partner | FisherBroyles, LLP

Jayne Reardon is a nationally renowned authority on legal ethics and professionalism, counseling lawyers and legal service providers on ethics, risk management, and regulatory matters. A seasoned trial lawyer and certified neutral, she brings a rare combination of courtroom experience, regulatory insight, and national thought leadership to the profession’s most consequential questions of professional responsibility.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. Reardon earned her J.D. from the University of Michigan in 1983 and her B.S. from the University of Notre Dame in 1979, and has completed arbitration and mediation trainings through the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation. She is admitted to practice in Illinois, before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and before the United States Supreme Court. She serves on the national rosters of the American Arbitration Association for Commercial and Consumer Arbitration and is a certified neutral in the Early Dispute Resolution Process.

• Recognition & Leadership

Ms. Reardon has been recognized nationally for her contributions to professional responsibility, including appointment to chair the ABA’s Standing Committee on Professionalism for three consecutive years and receipt of the Center for Professional Responsibility’s highest lifetime honor, the Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award. She previously served as Executive Director of the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, an organization dedicated to promoting ethics and professionalism among lawyers and judges.

• Professional Involvement

Ms. Reardon is active across the organized bar. Her memberships include the American Bar Association — where she has served on the Center for Professional Responsibility’s Standing Committee on Professionalism (former Chair), the Working Group on Reforms to Advertising Rules, and the Law Practice Division’s Ethics & Professional Responsibility Committee — the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, the Illinois State Bar Association (Section on Alternative Dispute Resolution), the Chicago Bar Association (Professional Responsibility Committee), and the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois, as well as past service on the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being. A sought-after educator, she has delivered hundreds of CLE and educational programs on ethics and professional responsibility to law firms, law students, judges, and bar associations across Illinois and nationally, on topics ranging from conflicts of interest and succession planning to the ethics of artificial intelligence, legal technology, and regulatory reform. She is also a widely published author whose work has appeared in the ABA Journal, Law Practice Today, the St. Mary’s Law Journal, the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, and ABA book chapters on professionalism and civility.

• Experience

Ms. Reardon’s career spans private practice, regulatory enforcement, and institutional leadership. An experienced trial lawyer, she has tried cases in state and federal courts across Illinois and on appeal up to the United States Supreme Court. Her background includes service as disciplinary counsel for the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission and prior practice at Kelley Drye & Warren and Locke Lord (formerly Wilman Harrold Allen & Dixon). At FisherBroyles, her practice spans arbitration and mediation, commercial litigation, legal ethics and professional responsibility, litigation and risk management, professional and management liability, and cyber-risk, privacy, and data security.

Khasim Lockhart, Associate | Frankfurt Kurnit Klein + Selz PC

Khasim Lockhart is an associate in Frankfurt Kurnit’s Litigation Group whose practice focuses on entertainment, intellectual property, employment, legal ethics, and professional responsibility. A rising voice in legal ethics and professional responsibility litigation, he pairs substantial commercial litigation experience with a national profile as a CLE presenter on the ethical implications of artificial intelligence in legal practice.

• Education & Credentials

Mr. Lockhart received his J.D. from Fordham University School of Law in 2018, with a concentration in Intellectual Property, where his honors included the Eugene J. Keefe Award, the Archibald R. Murray Public Service Award, the Northeast Region of the National Black Law Students Association’s Chapter President of the Year Award, service as Associate Editor of the Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal, and captaining the championship team at the Pepperdine Entertainment Law Competition for Fordham Law Moot Court. He earned his B.A., cum laude, from Binghamton University, State University of New York, in 2014, and is admitted to practice in the State of New York and the Southern District of New York.

• Recognition & Leadership

Mr. Lockhart serves as Co-Chair of Frankfurt Kurnit’s Racial Justice Task Force. His honors include recognition by Best Lawyers in America on its 2026 “Ones to Watch” list for Litigation – Intellectual Property; as a “Rising Star” in the New York Law Journal’s 2023 New York Legal Awards; by Lawyers of Color on its 2022 Hot List and as a 2023 Law Firm Diversity Professional; and by Super Lawyers as a 2024 and 2025 “Rising Star” in Litigation, Entertainment & Sports, Intellectual Property, and Professional Liability. Fordham University School of Law has recognized him as an alumnus “making history now” and as a 2024 alumni “Trailblazer.”

• Professional Involvement

Mr. Lockhart is an adjunct professor at Fordham University School of Law, where he teaches Peer Mentoring and Leadership. A frequent CLE presenter, he has spoken on evolving ethical responsibility in the AI age, the legal ethics of generative and agentic AI, ethics for new and IP lawyers, and diversity and inclusion in the profession before organizations including the New York City Bar, the New York State Bar Association, the Federal Bar Council, the New York Women’s Bar Association, Lawline, and Fordham Law School’s Bridge the Gap programs. His commentary and writing have appeared in Above the Law, American Bar Association publications, Law360, and the New York State Bar Association Journal. Outside the law, he is an active musician with music on all major streaming platforms.

• Experience

Mr. Lockhart represents clients across entertainment, intellectual property, employment, legal ethics, and professional responsibility matters, and brings substantial commercial litigation experience spanning securities, real estate, insurance, and general commercial contract disputes. Prior to joining Frankfurt Kurnit, he was a litigation associate at Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP.

SESSION 1 – Intake to Exit: Minimizing Withdrawal Risk Under ABA Opinion 516 | 1:00pm – 2:00pm

This session examines how ABA Formal Opinion 516 redefines permissive withdrawal under Rule 1.16(b)(1), showing attorneys how engagement letters, intake screening, and matter lifecycle practices reduce withdrawal risk — and how to execute a clean, compliant exit.

BREAK | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

SESSION 2 – Client Communication and Permissive Withdrawal | 2:10pm – 3:10pm

This session covers Model Rule 1.4 communication duties — update cadence, documentation trails, and engagement letter commitments — alongside permissive withdrawal under ABA Formal Opinions 516 and 523, including material adverse effect analysis and Rule 1.16(d) wind-down obligations.