A Practice Smart(TM) Feature
I read an interesting article by William Hornsby entitled What’s in a Law Firm Name? He publishes a blog entitled, The Boundaries of Legal Marketing, which is about the rules and policies that govern lawyer advertising, marketing, and sales and he also guests for Attorney at Work.
Here are the points he made in the article.
- Ethics rules governing firm names are not consistent from one state to another. Consider those in your state before you spend time, money and energy creating your name.
- Regardless of the state in which you practice, remember
a- No false or misleading names. Most states have adopted ABA Model Rule 7.5, which states that law firm names cannot be false or misleading.
b- If the firm name identifies a practice area, the lawyers need to be experienced in that area.
c- If you say you have associates, you need to have associates. Associates are generally considered to be lawyers who are not partners or shareholders and who are, practically speaking, employees of the firm. Employees who are not lawyers, such as paralegals, investigators and other support staff are not considered associates in most states.
d- Firm names can’t imply they are tied to government agencies and public or chartable legal agencies. The University Legal Center, or the Peoples Law Clinic, are examples of names that have been found to be misleading.
Some states have additional restrictions. A few conclude that trade names are misleading on their face and prohibit them altogether. These states include Arizona, Iowa, New York, Ohio, Mississippi and Texas. Be sure to check the rules of your state for direction on the use of a trade name. A few states permit trade names, but require those firms to include the name of a lawyer in the firm in addition to the other information, such as the “Smith Bankruptcy Law Center.”
Florida and Louisiana have rules that permit trade names, but also require those names to be used in all circumstances, including letterhead and pleadings. This rule is designed to dissuade lawyers from using ridiculous trade names merely to get a priority listing in directories.
Practice Smart(TM) Features are a service of Michael Blum and Appeal Funding Partners, LLC. The Features are thoughts from a variety of sources on our practices, on being trial lawyers and things of importance to trial lawyers and their clients.
Michael Blum is a trial attorney and CEO of Appeal Funding Partners, LLC with over 17 years experience providing risk mitigation services and non-recourse funding to attorneys and plaintiffs with money judgments on appeal. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Consumer Attorneys of California and of the Marin Trial Lawyers Association and regularly speaks to trial-lawyer groups and has written for TLA magazines on the financial management of a contingency-fee law firm. He may be contacted at 415-729-4214 or mgblum@appealfundingpartners.com.
The information in this article is provided for informational purposes only and with the understanding that the author is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, tax or other professional advice or services.
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