The 2020 edition of the Compendium of Professional Responsibility Rules and Standards gathers together for immediate reference the essential legal ethics materials needed by lawyers and judges in their daily practice, law students in their exploration of the standards of their new profession, and legal scholars in their analysis of the changing currents that influence professional regulation.

The Compendium presents models for ethical and professional conduct and standards for enforcing that conduct that have been developed by the American Bar Association. These models have been used as the foundation for most state regulations and as interpretive guidance for the courts in their resolution of professional responsibility issues. Despite the local variations in the way they have been adopted (occasionally significant), they serve to familiarize the reader with the philosophy of lawyer regulation and can be used to initiate review of substantive issues unfamiliar to the lawyer, student, or scholar.

Information on the composition, jurisdiction, and procedures of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility is included to explain how ABA ethics rules are formulated and interpreted. In addition, several of the Committee's Formal Ethics Opinions that address important areas of lawyer conduct have been included.