Ethics Opinions? Was This Honestly Proposed by The North Carolina Bar?

The North Carolina State Bar, in its Proposed 2007 Formal Ethics Opinion 4, published in the Spring 2007 Journal includes the following text. It may or may not be approved "as is".

North Carolina State Bar Ethics Opinion:

Inquiry:

If a client, non-client, fellow attorney, or allied professional requests one or more business cards or firm brochures from the estate-planning attorney, may the estate-planning attorney oblige the request?

Opinion:

The attorney may give a third party one of his business cards or one brochure in response to a request. The attorney may not give the third party multiple cards or brochures because of the risk of in-person solicitation by the third party on the attorney’s behalf.

Inquiry:

Along with a thank-you letter from the attorney to a client for the client’s having allowed the attorney to provide services to that client, may the attorney include a business card and/or firm brochure with the suggestion that the client, if so willing, pass it along to someone who the client thinks might need similar services?

Opinion:

No, because of the risk of in-person solicitation by the third party on the attorney’s behalf.

I can envision the following conversation:

Question: "Attorney Cartier, thank you so much.  You did such a great job on my case.  Can I have a few of your business cards?  I know some people who would really benefit from your services."

Answer: "No.  I'm so sorry Mr. Satisfied Client and Potential Referrer of New Business. It would be unethical for me to give you more than one card precisely for that reason.  But I can write the information on these Post-Its."

Talk amongst yourselves.

Comments

[Chuck Newton]

After litigating these matters in the past and dealing with the Texas Bar there are two things I have come to understand. (1) Attorneys associated with bar associations are extraordinarily concerned about competition and little else. (2) They are just crazy. Do we need some solicitation restrictions? A few. Certainly you do not want attorneys clawing over an accident victim or someone in foreclosure to get businesses. But, the idea that you cannot make yourself known. I can almost assure you that there is nobody in the leadership of the North Carolina Bar that adheres to that opinion personally. They just think it is okay for them to do it because they are soliciting big corporations. As maddening as it is, as much as everybody simply ignores these rules, solos could end this practice if they would just vote these bar people out. They have the numbers. They have the power. They just do not use it. As it is, at least in Texas, bar elections are small, and solos are the least likely to vote. Further, such restrictions should be the least restrictive as necessary to achieve the state interest. A ban on multiple business cards and pamplets is not the least effective means of stopping in person solicitation. Some group of solos need to bring civil rights cases against the mandatory bar associations for these opinions and rules. I did it years ago with not perfect, but a good deal of, success. It takes a lot out of you, and it is probably for the younger attorneys, but it needs to be considered. This stuff really has to stop.

[Ann]

I'm just getting started. It would break my heart and my bank account if one of my first clients asked me for a few of my cards, and I wasn't allowed to provide them. This seems to SO unfairly skew the market against small practices. Goodness knows the big firms down the way have plenty of glossy ads in the trade mags and such. Gosh, couldn't those be collected in groups of three and handed out?