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A LAWYER DESIRING TO DEVELOP A PRACTICE DEVOTED TO LEGAL RESEARCH
IN ASSISTING OTHER LAWYERS MAY ADVISE OTHER ATTORNEYS OF HIS SERVICES
BY ORAL STATEMENT, BY BUSINESS CARDS, BY MAILING NOTICE AND BY PUBLISHING
NOTICES IN LEGAL JOURNALS, PROVIDED NO REFERENCE IS MADE TO ANY
SPECIAL COMPETENCE IN THE FIELD OF LEGAL RESEARCH AND PROVIDED ANY
SUCH STATEMENTS, CARDS AND NOTICES SHALL REFER ONLY TO HIS "AVAILABILITY"
FOR LEGAL RESEARCH WITH NO MENTION OF OR REFERENCE TO "SPECIALIZATION"
IN THAT AREA.
FACTS
The inquiring attorney requests answers to the following specific
questions:
1. Is it ethical to approach an attorney
personally and, in a brief and dignified oral statement, make
the attorney aware of my services?
2. Is it ethical to leave with an attorney
a business card stating my name, address, phone number, and my
specialization in legal research?
3. Is it ethical to mail a notice, reading
as follows, to attorneys:
"I
am establishing a practice specializing in legal research. This
service is open exclusively to members of the Nebraska State Bar
Association, and is not available to nonmembers.
Address/Phone
Number"
Is it ethical to post a notice in legal journals such as the
Supreme Court Journal, The Nebraska Law Review, The Creighton
Law Review and daily legal journals in the state, reading as
follows: "Attorney desires legal research. This service
is open only to bar members. Address/phone number"
CODE PROVISIONS
The provision of the Code of Professional Responsibility applicable
to the subject of your inquiry is DR 2-105(A)(3) which provides
as follows:
"A lawyer available to act as a consultant to or as an associate
of other lawyers in a particular branch of law or legal service
may distribute to other lawyers and publish in legal journals
a dignified announcement of such availability, but the announcement
shall not contain a representation of special competence or experience.
The announcement shall not be distributed to lawyers more frequently
than once in a calendar year, but it may be published periodically
in legal journals."
In Opinions No. 73-1 this Committee held that it
is permissible to publish periodically in the Creighton Law Review
and the Nebraska Law Review the inquirer's dignified statement
of availability as a consultant to other lawyers; further, that
it is permissible in a brief biographical statement accompanying
an article on securities law in a legal journal (such as a Law
Review or other legal publication circulated primarily to lawyers)
to state that the author is available as consultant to other lawyers,
but it would not be proper to state that the author specialized
in or is principally engaged in the practice of a limited field
of law for a specified number of years.
In Opinions No. 72-9 we ruled that it is not improper
for a lawyer to make known to city and village attorneys his availability
to act as an associate to them in the general revision and codification
of ordinances for cities of the first and second classes and for
villages.
CONCLUSION
In light of the foregoing, your four specific questions are
answered as follows:
1. Yes, provided the oral statement makes
no reference to any special competence in the field of legal research.
2. Yes, provided that the word "specialization"
is eliminated from the business card and a word such as "availability"
is substituted.
3. Yes, provided the first sentence is
amended to read: "I am establishing a practice where I will
be available to do legal research" and provided further that
the announcement is not mailed more frequently than once in a
calendar year.
4. Yes.
76-4, April 7, 1976
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