How to Close the Opinion 666 Gap

The gap is a textual and institutional problem, not a constitutional one. It can be closed through the normal professional-responsibility process. Three levers, in increasing order of cascade reach.

Lever 1 — Texas Bar opinion extension

A new opinion in the Texas Center for Legal Ethics series that extends Opinions 539 and 666 to cover non-marital domestic-partner configurations — couples in civil unions or domestic partnerships, couples meeting Texas’s common-law marriage doctrine (Family Code § 2.401), and couples with the kind of shared financial entanglement (joint accounts, joint residence, shared dependents, coordinated estate planning) that the underlying financial-interest analysis was designed to address.

Any Texas Bar member can submit the question that triggers a new opinion. The Texas Center for Legal Ethics is the active issuing body. Typical timescale from submission to issued opinion: 6 to 18 months.

Lever 2 — ABA Model Rule 1.7 revision

The ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility revises the comments to Model Rule 1.7 to replace “closely related by blood or marriage” with language that captures functionally equivalent household configurations — e.g., “any household member with shared financial interests likely to materially affect representation.”

ABA revisions take years, but once adopted by the House of Delegates they cascade: most state bars use the Model Rules as their starting text, and the revised language eventually propagates to nearly every U.S. jurisdiction. The systemic 50-state coverage problem (see national scope) collapses through this lever.

Lever 3 — Texas legislative clarification

A Texas Government Code amendment directing the Texas Bar to extend conflict-of-interest rules to attorney households regardless of marital status. The drafting can leave the precise definition of “household” to bar regulation, or define it directly in statute.

Statutory enactment forecloses bar-internal foot-dragging on Lever 1 and creates a public record of the gap that accelerates Lever 2. The Texas Legislature meets biennially in odd-numbered years, so timing depends on session calendar.

Coordinated strategy

The three levers reinforce each other:

• Lever 1 documents the gap formally and becomes citation authority for Lever 2.
• Lever 2 cascades the fix to most other states.
• Lever 3 forecloses delay on Lever 1 and creates a public record that accelerates Lever 2.

A complete remedy effort would pursue all three in parallel. Any single one of them, executed cleanly, would close the gap in its jurisdiction.