New Jersey Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics Ethics Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of legal ethics opinions issued by the New Jersey Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics, with full citations and source links on every page.
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Can a New Jersey certified attorney pay a referral fee to an out-of-state lawyer who is not licensed in New Jersey?
The opinion concluded no: certified attorneys generally could not pay referral fees to out-of-state lawyers not eligible to practice in New Jersey. The New Jersey Supreme Court vacated Opinion 745 on …
Can a New Jersey lawyer pay a marketing company for client 'leads,' and when does a paid lead become a prohibited referral?
The Committees conclude lawyers may not pay for client referrals (RPC 7.3(d)) and that paying a referral fee is impermissible fee-sharing (RPC 5.4(a)). A lawyer may pay per lead but not per client ret…
Can a non-law company sell legal services by matching paying customers with outside lawyers, and can a lawyer take that work?
The Committees conclude a company that is not a law firm commits the unauthorized practice of law when it contracts with customers to provide legal services and matches them with outside lawyers. A la…
Can a New Jersey lawyer participate in online legal-services platforms like Avvo, LegalZoom, or Rocket Lawyer?
No. The Committees held that New Jersey lawyers may not participate in Avvo's legal services because it requires impermissible fee sharing and referral fees (RPC 5.4(a), 7.2(c), 7.3(d)), and may not s…
Can a lawyer work as a lobbyist at a non-law-firm government affairs company alongside nonlawyers, and use 'Esq.' on its letterhead?
A lawyer may provide lobbying and government affairs services at a non-law-firm company alongside nonlawyers, but may not hold out as a lawyer, may not provide legal services, and must make clear to c…
Can a part-time municipal court judge share in the fees their law partners or associates earn from criminal matters in other counties?
Yes. The Committee overruled Opinion 559 and held that a part-time municipal court judge may share in fees generated by partners or associates who handle criminal, quasi-criminal, or penal matters out…
Can a New Jersey lawyer partner with, share fees with, or take referrals from a for-profit loan or mortgage modification company?
No to partnering or fee-sharing. The Committee concludes a New Jersey lawyer may not pay referral fees to, share fees with, work as in-house counsel for, or partner with a for-profit loan modification…
Can a New Jersey lawyer charge a 50 percent contingent fee in a consumer-protection case where the recovery includes statutory attorneys' fees?
The Committee concluded a fixed 50 percent contingency cannot be deemed reasonable per se and cannot be broadly approved where it would exceed the statutory, regulatory, or decisional framework that g…
Can a New Jersey attorney run a commercial divorce-mediation center under a trade name and have the center collect and keep the mediation fees?
No, not as structured. The Committee concludes that attorneys taking cases from the center practice law as limited-scope third-party neutrals; the mediation charges are legal fees, so the center's col…
Can a law firm organized as a professional corporation create and wholly own a subsidiary law firm, keep the subsidiary's profits, and name the subsidiary after the lawyers who run it?
Yes to all three, with conditions. A law-firm PC may form a wholly-owned subsidiary organized as a PC or LLC to practice a specialized area of law, and may receive the subsidiary's net profits without…
Can a New Jersey law firm affiliate with a foreign law firm and pool profits as compensation for referring clients to each other?
The Committee concluded that the proposed affiliation, whose central purpose was reciprocal client referrals compensated through pooled profits, violated RPC 7.3(d), which bars compensating a person o…
Can a New Jersey lawyer be a partner in more than one firm and form a partnership with out-of-state attorneys to share fees?
The Committee concluded that a lawyer may belong to more than one firm and may partner with out-of-state attorneys, and the partners may divide fees as they choose, provided a bona fide law partnershi…
Can a law firm hire temporary (per diem) lawyers through a placement agency and pay the agency a percentage-based fee?
The Committee concluded that firms may employ temporary lawyers, with imputed disqualification under RPC 1.10 turning on a functional analysis of the temporary lawyer's access to other clients' inform…
Can a law firm lease its associates and staff from an employee leasing company without violating the ban on sharing fees with non-lawyers?
The Committee concluded that the described employee-leasing arrangement does not violate RPC 5.4, because the leasing company has no control over the lawyers' professional judgment and the leasing fee…
Can a municipal prosecutor's law firm privately represent the same municipality's judge, or take fee-sharing referrals of the judge's negligence cases?
No. Both the municipal prosecutor's firm representing that municipality's judge in private matters and accepting fee-sharing referrals of the judge's negligence cases are improper, because the financi…
Can a lawyer arrange to pay a medical expert or consulting service a percentage of the client's recovery, and how must New Jersey counsel handle fee-sharing with pro hac vice counsel?
Counsel should not participate in a contingent-fee arrangement paying a medical consulting service or doctor a percentage of the recovery, as it contravenes the policy of maximizing the injured party'…
Can a municipal court judge share in the criminal-case fees earned by a law partner or associate who practices in counties other than where the judge sits?
No. Although a partner or associate of a municipal court judge may practice criminal law outside the county where the judge sits, the judge may not share in the fees generated from that criminal pract…
Can a New Jersey lawyer list himself as 'Of Counsel' to a multistate marketing firm that takes a percentage of referred-matter fees and runs group advertising?
No. The opinion concluded the arrangement is improper because the firm's fee division is an arbitrary percentage unrelated to services performed and the firm is an unregistered referral organization t…
Can a lawyer work for two different law firms at once, and also hold a part-time job with a state government agency?
Yes, with conditions. The opinion concluded a lawyer may work for two firms, each paying for services rendered, if their matters are not adverse and no client information is exposed, and may also hold…
Can New Jersey law partners be listed 'of counsel' on a sole practitioner's letterhead in another county, and the sole practitioner 'of counsel' to their firm?
Yes. Nothing in the rules precludes the cross 'of counsel' designations, assuming those listed are genuinely available to the firms' clients and any fee division does not offend the fee-sharing rule; …
Can two New Jersey lawyers form a partnership while one serves as mayor and the other as borough attorney in the same municipality?
No. A statute bars a sitting governing-body member from such an appointment, and because the mayor would share partnership income that includes the municipal attorney's fees, the arrangement creates a…
When a New Jersey lawyer leaves a professional corporation, can the firm and the departing lawyer split fees by fixed percentages on the pending and future files?
For files that originated while the lawyer was a member, a separation-agreement percentage split is permitted; but for entirely new files that come to him only after he leaves, the rule against splitt…
Can a lawyer take collection suits referred by a commercial collection agency that handles the lawyer's retention and fees, where the agency is only the assignee of the creditors' claims?
Only on conditions. The opinion concluded that where the agency is merely the assignee, the creditor is the client, so the lawyer may be engaged only with the creditor's consent after full disclosure,…
May a lawyer pay a forwarding attorney his share of a fee for cases he referred, when the forwarding attorney was suspended from practice while the cases were pending?
The opinion concluded that a lawyer may divide a fee only where there was a division of service or responsibility, and that a forwarder's later suspension does not bar his share for work done before s…
Can a lawyer who moves out of state but keeps his New Jersey license take an 'of counsel' role with a New Jersey firm and share fees on a percentage basis?
Yes, if he qualifies to practice here. The opinion concluded a lawyer may ethically be 'of counsel' to a New Jersey firm and be paid a percentage of fees, so long as he meets the requirements to pract…
At a mortgage closing, may a lawyer for the lender collect a title-company charge for searches and title examination that the lawyer neither fixes nor receives?
No. The opinion concluded that where the attorney does not actually fix or receive the fee but collects a charge for the title company that includes legal work such as title evaluation, the charge for…
May a trade association's salaried attorney-manager represent individual member companies in arbitration and NLRB matters, with the association charging and keeping a fee for that service?
The opinion concluded that Canon 35 is dispositive: an attorney employed by a trade association may render legal services in matters in which the association as an entity is interested, but the employ…
Is the estate of a deceased forwarding attorney entitled to a share of fees the receiving attorney later earns in a separate suit the client brought directly, after the forwarder's death?
The opinion concluded that because Canon 34 allows a division of fees only on a division of service or responsibility, the deceased forwarder's estate, which performed no service and shared no respons…
May a retiring lawyer sell his practice to another lawyer for a fixed price paid as a percentage of fees later received from his clients?
The opinion concluded the proposed sale was improper, because paying for a practice through a percentage of fees received from the seller's clients is a division of fees not based on a division of ser…
Can a lawyer hire an independent non-lawyer adjuster to negotiate and settle a client's accident claim, and pay that adjuster a percentage of the settlement?
The Committee concluded it was improper. Engaging a layman to settle the claim offended the canons against lay partnerships and lay intermediaries, and to the extent it let the adjuster perform legal …
Can a lawyer take over a retiring attorney's cases and pay him a share of future fees, or a lump sum, for the goodwill of the practice?
The Committee concluded both arrangements were improper. Paying a retiring attorney a percentage of future profits or a lump sum for his practice and goodwill violated the canon against dividing fees …
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Legal ethics opinions from the New Jersey Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics 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.