The Mississippi Bar Ethics Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of legal ethics opinions issued by the The Mississippi Bar, with full citations and source links on every page.
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Can a lawyer retain a non-lawyer medical consultant on a contingent fee to evaluate a case and find expert witnesses, if the consultant will not testify?
Yes. The opinion concludes a lawyer may use a non-testifying medical consultant paid on a contingent basis, because Rule 5.4(a) is not triggered where the consultant's fee is separate from and not a p…
How can a surviving law partner divide fees on pending files with the estate of a deceased partner when their agreement is silent on work in progress?
Without an agreement covering work in progress, Rule 5.4(a) bars sharing fees with the deceased partner's estate; the estate may be compensated only on a quantum meruit basis for work the partnership …
Can a lawyer take a fixed fee for title work while a mortgage lender collects and keeps an attorney's fee charged in the lawyer's name at loan closings?
The opinion concluded that a lawyer may not participate in a mortgage lender's loan closings in which the lender performs legal or quasi-legal services and collects and retains part of an 'attorney's …
Can a lawyer let a loan company file form collection suits in his name and keep the attorney's fees the suits recover?
The opinion concluded that the arrangement is improper under MRPC 5.3, 5.4, and 5.5: a lawyer who lets a loan company file fill-in-the-blanks declarations in his name, takes the contested cases, and l…
Can a law firm honor a non-lawyer referral service's contingency-fee contracts and pay the service a percentage of the client's recovery?
The opinion concludes a law firm may not share legal fees with a non-lawyer client referral service that signed clients to contingency-fee contracts before any lawyer was retained; doing so violates t…
Can a Mississippi lawyer volunteer to give free limited legal counseling through a Chamber of Commerce program that charges members a registration fee?
The opinion concluded a lawyer may participate, so long as the Chamber's charge covers administrative costs only and not a fee for legal services, and the lawyer treats those he counsels as clients fo…
Can a Mississippi law firm pay associates and paralegals bonuses based on a profit-sharing arrangement tied to hours billed and collected?
The opinion concluded there is no ethical prohibition on the proposed bonus plans; Rule 5.4(a)(3) allows a firm to include nonlawyer employees in a compensation plan based in whole or in part on profi…
Can a law firm advertise that it will donate part of a client's legal fees to charity, for example to children's charities for car-wreck cases?
No. The opinion concludes that advertising that a client's legal fees will be shared with a charitable organization is prohibited, because it is a misleading comparison ad under MRPC 7.1 and runs afou…
Can a lawyer set up a corporation to solicit clients for a non-lawyer tax-consulting firm that will then hire the lawyer for the legal work?
The opinion concluded that a lawyer may not use a corporation that is the lawyer's alter ego to solicit tax-consulting clients for a non-lawyer firm when that firm will employ the lawyer to provide th…
Can a Mississippi lawyer participate in a for-profit prepaid legal services plan that pays a set amount per subscriber for defined services?
The opinion concluded a lawyer may participate in a for-profit prepaid legal services plan provided it preserves the lawyer's independent judgment and client confidences, avoids conflicts and improper…
Can a Mississippi lawyer recommend that a client contract with a lay medical-review company that takes a contingent fee in a malpractice case?
The opinion concluded a lawyer may recommend that a client contract with a lay organization paid on a contingent fee basis, so long as the organization does not engage in the unauthorized practice of …
Can a Mississippi lawyer provide legal research and writing services to other lawyers outside the firm, and must the arrangement be disclosed to the client?
The opinion concluded a lawyer may provide research and writing services to outside lawyers, but the engaging lawyer must disclose the arrangement and obtain the client's consent unless the client's i…
Can a Mississippi lawyer share an office suite with non-lawyer professional counselors and also run a business doing legal research for other lawyers?
The opinion concluded a lawyer may do both: share office space with non-lawyers as long as the arrangement is not a law-practice partnership and client files are kept inaccessible to them, and provide…
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Legal ethics opinions from the The Mississippi Bar interpret the rules of professional conduct for working lawyers, in response to inquiries from members and committees. They are not binding like court discipline decisions, but courts and discipline boards treat formal opinions as substantial guidance on how the rules apply. Every opinion above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the original source on the bar's site.