Karasma Media Legal Marketing Blog by Kara Smith » Blog Archive » Differences Between State Advertising and Solicitation Rules and the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct

Differences Between State Advertising and Solicitation Rules and the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct

For legal marketers the rules surrounding transparency and integrity in professional conduct in brings about challenges specific only to this industry.

Additionally, due to the significance of their services for individual clients, state, federal and international law, using social media to stay connected to colleagues, changes in laws outside of your practice, and generating business is exceedingly important.

The ABA posted an update to the Differences Between State Advertising and Solicitation Rules and the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct (January 22, 2009).

It reflects the New York Lawyer Advertising Rules following the decision of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of New York in Alexander v. Cahill, 2007 WL 2120024 (N.D.N.Y. July 23, 2007), which is currently being appealed.

The bottom line:
Communications pertaining to lawyers or the lawyer’s services should not be false or misleading. A communication is false or misleading if it contains a material misrepresentation of fact or law, or omits a fact necessary to take the statement considered as a whole not materially misleading.

Are mis-communications going to happen? Of course they are! The key to success, whether on this business platform or in life, is to acknowledging responsibility, cleaning up whatever messes were made, and moving on.

Photo by asmundur

Tags: Kara Smith, Karasma Media, Legal Marketing Tactics, Legal Marketing Tips, Legal Marketing Tools

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 31st, 2009 at 11:55 am and is filed under Legal Marketing Tactics, Legal Marketing Tips, Legal Marketing Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Differences Between State Advertising and Solicitation Rules and the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct”

gyi tsakalakis Says:
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Great article. The legal profession as a whole, and State bars in particular, need to wake up and realize what the Supreme Court and the FTC have long-since recognized: That lawyer marketing is not only constitutionally protected, but also provides a benefit to the public. While there is certainly a strong need for regulating false and misleading attorney advertising, the rules of most State bars are arcane and simply to not take into account the information-age society in which we live. Look for more and more State bar rules to face the fate of the the rules of the New York bar.
Kara Smith - Karasma Media Says:
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Gyi – You’re making a strong point here. The States Bar rules are out of date pertaining to today’s usage of social media and need to be updated.

This changing platform is one all legal marketers will want to stay in touch with, and there’s no better way to do that, than on platforms like this one.
Karasma Media » Blog Archive » Using Social Media? Get Familiar With Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act Says:
July 6th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
[...] Differences Between State Advertising and Solicitation Rules and the ABA Model Rules of Professional… I2 Important Laws Every U.S. Legal Marketing Blogger Should Know [...]