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THE TRAP: Overlooking the Marketing Rules
A North Carolina lawyer who markets and provides legal services over the Internet under the name Virtual Law Firm sought the advice of the state bar on how certain professional conduct rules applied to it.
The resulting ethics opinion states that, while there is no prohibition against lawyers using the Internet for communication purposes, “Cyberlawyers have no control over their target audience or where their marketing information will be viewed. Lawyers who appear to be soliciting clients from other states may be asking for trouble.”
At a minimum, the Virtual Law Firm must comply with North Carolina’s rules for lawyer advertising, the opinion states. That means the site must list an actual office address, identify the lawyer or lawyers primarily responsible for the Web site, and identify the jurisdictional limits of the practice.
“A prudent lawyer may want to research other jurisdictions’ restrictions on advertising and cross-border practice to ensure compliance before aggressively marketing and providing legal services via the Internet.” North Carolina State Bar, 2005 Formal Ethics Opinion 10 (Jan. 26, 2006).
THE WAY OUT: Translate for the Internet
BY DIANE L. KARPMAN
Thirty years ago, in Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, 433 U.S. 350 (1977), the U.S. Supreme Court laid out the fundamentals of acceptable lawyer advertising: It must not be false, deceptive or misleading. From these three simple ideas, all 50 states have crafted increasingly byzantine rules.
It is nearly impossible to comply, especially on the Internet. States have different retention policies, label requirements and even rules for type size. Rules regulate content like testimonials, comparisons and monikers (“pit bulls,” “heavy hitters”). Recently New York attempted to prohibit pop-ups in electronic advertising. Alexander v. Cahill, No. 5:07-CV-117 (N.D.N.Y. July 23, 2007).
These advertising rules