Hug Gone Bad

Today’s lesson in legal ethics:
Model Rules of Professional Conduct: Rule 1.8(j):

A lawyer shall not have sexual relations with a client unless a consensual sexual relationship existed between them when the client-lawyer relationship commenced.

What does this mean? It means not to do this:

Theresa Olson, the former King County public defender accused of having sex with her client in a jail meeting room two years ago, testified yesterday that she had an inappropriate relationship and had physical contact with her client, but maintained that it was simply “a hug gone bad.”
. . .
Olson is accused of having sex with her client, Sebastian Burns, who was later found guilty with friend Atif Rafay of the 1994 slayings of Rafay’s father, mother and sister in their Bellevue home.
. . .
Olson testified that she and Burns had developed romantic feelings for each other, and that when Burns gave her a hug during their August 2002 meeting, she did not pull away.
“I should have, but I did not,” she said, adding that the hug � which was more than platonic � had surprised her.
Bar lawyer Joanne Abelson pressed Olson, asking her whether she found the hug “flattering,” “exciting,” “stimulating” and “thrilling.” To each question, Olson replied, “yes.”

I guess the lesson here is to be careful with those hugs.