AN ATTORNEY ACTIVELY PRACTICING LAW MAY NOT ETHICALLY SPECIFY ON HIS
LETTERHEAD, PROMISSORY NOTE FORM, OR IN ANY WRITTEN FORM, OTHER OCCUPATIONS
IN WHICH HE IS ENGAGED.
CANONS INTERPRETED:
Canon 27 (Canons of Professional Ethics Relating
to Advertising.)
"It
is unprofessional to solicit professional employment by circulars,
advertisements, through touters or by personal communications or
interviews not warranted by personal relationships."***
Canon 2 (Code of Professional Responsibility)
"A
lawyer should assist the legal profession in fulfilling its duty
to make legal counsel available."
EC 2-9.
"The traditional ban against advertising
by lawyers, which is subject to certain limited exceptions, is rooted
in the public interest. Competitive advertising would encourage
extravagant, artful, self-laudatory brashness in seeking business
and thus could mislead the layman."***
DR 2-101.(E):
"A lawyer who is engaged both in the practice of law and another
profession or business shall not so indicate on his letterhead,
office sign, or professional card, nor shall he identify himself
as a lawyer in any publication in connection with his other profession
or business."
FACTUAL
SITUATION
A law
firm caused to be printed and used a promissory note form stating
that its members are also engaged in business as real estate brokers,
abstracters, and in making loans and selling insurance.
QUESTIONS
The
question posed is whether lawyers actively engaged in the practice
of law may specify in written form other occupations followed by
them.
DISCUSSION
Combining
a general law practice with a mortgage loan business or a real estate
brokerage business has been considered in several informal opinions
of the American Bar Association.
In Informal
Opinion No. 520, The Committee said:
"An
attorney actively engaged in the practice of law may not also carry
on a mortgage loan business from his law office."
In Informal
Opinion No. 1280, it is stated:
"A
lawyer may not specify other occupations in which he is engaged."
Informal
Opinions No. 38 to 43 comment upon violations of the canon prohibiting
advertising in this fashion:
"While
an attorney may conduct a real estate business in another county
(38), he cannot, from his own law office, conduct a stock business
(39); operate a collection agency (40) or estate planning or any
other business (43) without violating Canon 27."
Informal
Opinion No. 709 asserts:
"A
real estate brokerage business is so closely related to the practice
of law that when engaged in by a lawyer, it constitutes the practice
of law; therefore, the only fee that can ethically be charged is
a legal fee and not a brokerage commission."
Informal
Opinion No. 1031 cites Informal Opinion No. 775 and comments upon
a situation where a lawyer was engaged in both the practice of law
and the real estate business. There the committee held:
"The
real estate business must not be used or permitted to directly or
indirectly advertise him as a lawyer or to solicit legal employment
for him. Under no circumstances should the real estate business
be conducted in or adjacent to the lawyer's law office if it advertises
in any manner; nor in such circumstances (advertising and solicitation
of real estate business) may it be conducted in the lawyer's name,
but instead would have to be conducted under a corporate or other
name not including the name of the lawyer."
CONCLUSION
This
committee concludes that lawyers cannot engage in the general practice
of law and in any manner advertise that at the same time from their
law office they act at loan agents or sell real estate and insurance.
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