A lawyer representing multiple claimants who settles their claims collectively must satisfy specific requirements.

The rule. A lawyer may not participate in an aggregate settlement of the claims of two or more clients unless each client gives informed consent in a writing signed by the client, after disclosure of the existence and nature of all the claims, and of the participation of each person in the settlement.

Full disclosure. Each client must know the total amount, what every other client is receiving, and how the allocation was determined. Disclosure limited to the individual client’s share does not satisfy the rule.

No advance consent. An agreement signed at retention purporting to authorize the lawyer to accept a settlement approved by a majority of clients is generally unenforceable, though some authority permits carefully structured arrangements with robust safeguards.

Allocation. By an independent allocator or a matrix, with an appeal mechanism, which reduces the lawyer’s conflict.

Walk-away thresholds. Settlements conditioned on a participation percentage put pressure on individual clients to accept, and the lawyer must not become the enforcer of the defendant’s threshold against a client’s interest.

Records. The disclosures and the signed consents, retained, because these arrangements are challenged years later.