Your Board should never allow this to be the case. The Board President or another Board Member should always be able to communicate directly with the Association Attorney.
Here’s why…
Let’s say your Board President discovers the HOA Manager has falsified the HOA financials and repeatedly lied about the HOA Taxes being filed. If the HOA Manager is the one controlling access to the Association Attorney, how can the Board President seek legal advice?
Can’t he just email or call the Association Attorney directly? Not if the HOA Manager has told the Association Attorney to ignore the Board President since he hasn’t been authorized to contact him directly.
Why would the Association Attorney listen to the HOA Manager? Maybe they have worked together for decades on multiple other HOAs. Maybe the HOA Manager requires the HOAs they manage to hire this attorney. Then it would make sense for the Association Attorney to have more allegiance to the HOA Manager than to the HOA who is his actual client.
The example above is not hypothetical. It actually happen and it’s a huge ethics violation by the Association Attorney.
If you find yourself in the situation, report the HOA Manager to your state Attorney General and file an ethics complaint against the Association Attorney with your State Bar.
This example highlights why it’s essential to hire an Association Attorney that is completely independent from the HOA Manager.