Are there limits on employees or agents of a law firm soliciting work for the firm from individuals known or reasonably believed to be in need of legal services for a particular matter? In a recently issued opinion, the ABA’s ethics committee has attempted to answer that question.
On April 13, 2022, the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued Formal Opinion 501, titled simply “Solicitation.” In addressing the scope of Rule 7.3’s prohibition on live, real time communications directed at prospective clients, the Opinion also provides a useful reminder of the responsibilities imposed on supervising attorneys to ensure that anyone the lawyer employs, retains, or associates with – from either inside or outside the firm – understands, and acts in accordance with, the Rules of Professional Conduct.
The Solicitation Rules
In both ABA Model Rule 7.3(a) and Connecticut Rule 7.3(a) the terms “solicit” and “solicitation” refer to:
a communication initiated by or on behalf of a lawyer or law firm that is directed to a specific person the lawyer knows or reasonably should know needs legal services in a particular matter and that offers to provide, or reasonably can be understood as offering to provide, legal services for that matter.
And, with certain exceptions, Rule 7.3(b) prohibits solicitation via “live person-to-person contact” where the “motive” of the solicitation is the lawyer’s “pecuniary gain.” The amendments of the advertising rules (effective...
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