Ethics Opinions

Committee on Professional Ethics Topic: Purchase of mailing list names for use in connection with offer to receive email educational newsletter. Digest of the Committee: “It is ethically permissible for an attorney or law firm to purchase a list of names to whom emails from the firm will be sent offering each recipient the opportunity […]

Committee on Professional Ethics – Opinion 942 Topic: Referrals of clients; notice to clients as to legal fees Digest of the Committee: “Lawyer may not ethically enter into arrangement with a non-lawyer firm to accept referrals of clients whose legal fees, in an amount not disclosed to the client, would be taken from the fee […]

Committee on Professional Ethics Topic: Maintaining confidentiality of client information as between independent lawyers sharing office space and computer Digest of the Committee: “Independent lawyers sharing office space may share computer for client-related information if they exercise reasonable care to assure that confidential information is not disclosed.” Rules: New York Rules of Professional Conduct 1.6(a) […]

Committee on Professional Ethics  Topic: Law firm ownership of business that provides nonlegal services and pays for “leads” Digest of the Committee: “Law firm that owns an entity providing nonlegal SSDI services is not subject to legal ethics rules as to those services, and no ethical violation would arise from entity’s purchase of leads to […]

Committee on Professional Ethics Topic: Designation of departing former name partner, who is taking an in-house counsel position, as “Special Counsel” on letterhead. Digest of the Committee: “Whether a law firm may designate a departing name partner as ‘Special Counsel’ after removing his name from the firm name depends on the level of his continuing […]

Topic: Surreptitious Recording by Lawyers   Syllabus of the Board: “A surreptitious, or secret, recording of a conversation by an Ohio lawyer is not a per se violation of Prof.Cond.R. 8.4(c) (conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation) if the recording does not violate the law of the jurisdiction in which the recording takes place. […]

Topics: Identification of Non-lawyers on Law Firm Websites Syllabus of the Board: “A law firm’s letterhead and website may list the names of nonlawyer employees if the employees are clearly identified as nonlawyers through the use of job titles or other identifiers that differentiate the lawyers from the nonlawyers. Similarly, a law firm’s business cards […]

Professional Ethics Committee for the State Bar of Texas Topic: “Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct may a lawyer, who is licensed to practice law in Texas and in North Carolina, practice law in North Carolina, without soliciting or representing persons in Texas, under a law firm name that is not permitted under […]

Committee on Professional Ethics Topic: Disclosure of information obtained from purported client Digest of the Committee: “An individual whose purpose in communicating with an attorney is to defraud that attorney rather than to obtain legal services is not a client or prospective client entitled to confidentiality, and it would not violate any ethical rules for […]

Professional Ethics Committee for the State Bar of Texas  Topic: “Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, may a law firm agree with a for-profit legal service contract company to provide legal services at discounted rates to persons who have contracted with the legal service contract company? May a law firm having such an agreement […]