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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In New Jersey, what makes a law firm's direct-mail solicitation letter to people charged with municipal offenses cross from permissible advertising into an ethics violation?
A joint opinion of the ACPE and the Committee on Attorney Advertising holds that solicitation letters which cast baseless aspersions on prosecutors and police, or misstate the prosecutor's role as sim…
Can a lawyer share office space with a private adoption agency that he also represents?
The Committee held the proposed arrangement improper: a lawyer who represents a private adoption agency may not share office space with it, because the shared facility could lead the public to conclud…
Can a lawyer run a for-profit adoption referral and consulting business alongside a law practice, and advertise the two together?
The Committee concluded a lawyer may operate a separate for-profit referral business, but the law office and the other business must be kept entirely separate; advertising the referral service in conj…
May a New Jersey lawyer hold free public legal seminars, advertise them in newspapers, and later represent people who attended?
Yes. The opinion concluded a lawyer may conduct free public legal seminars and advertise them in print media, and may later accept employment from an attendee, provided the seminar serves as a genuine…
May a lawyer run a for-profit corporation that puts on public educational programs about the law, advertise the participating attorneys, and represent attendees afterward?
Yes. The opinion concluded that advertisement of the contemplated educational programs in print media may be done and that attorneys who participate as lecturers may accept employment from individuals…
Can a New Jersey lawyer represent a buyer or seller in a real estate deal when the lawyer's spouse is the listing or selling broker, if the client consents after full disclosure?
No. The opinion concluded that when the lawyer's spouse is the listing or selling broker, the lawyer may not represent either party even with full disclosure and consent, because the spouse's commissi…
Can a lawyer send fee-schedule information to a registered group legal-services plan without committing improper solicitation?
Yes. The opinion concluded that furnishing the fee information allowed by the advertising rule to a group properly formed and registered under the legal-services-plan rule is proper advertising, not i…
May the lawyer who drafts a will name himself as the estate's attorney, executor, or a beneficiary, and does it matter whether the client asked for it?
A scrivener who inserts a clause retaining himself for the estate without the client's request acts unethically; where the testator directs such a designation or a legacy, the opinion treated independ…
After Bates, can a New Jersey lawyer send letters advertising legal services to businesses and the public with whom the lawyer has no prior relationship?
Yes, within limits. The opinion concluded that simple letters advertising the availability of legal services, addressed generally to a segment of the population the lawyer does not personally know, ar…
Can a lawyer advertise routine-service fees together with a discount for members of any identifiable group of at least 100 people?
No. The opinion concluded the advertisement was improper because it was designed to encourage people to form a group to obtain a fee reduction, circumventing the rule that controls cooperation with re…
Can a lawyer offer his corporate clients a prepaid group legal-services plan to provide legal services to their employees?
No. The opinion held the proposed plan violates DR 2-103(C) and DR 2-103(D)(4)(b), treating it as solicitation under Ohralik rather than protected advertising under Bates.
Can a lawyer who helps a group set up a prepaid legal services plan then be hired by that group as its counsel under the plan?
It depends. The opinion concluded a lawyer may not solicit a group to organize a prepaid legal plan so that he can become its counsel, but may represent the organization if he is approached to formali…
May a lawyer donate legal services to a charity so the charity can auction those services as a fundraiser?
No. The opinion concluded it is improper under DR 2-103 because the arrangement puts the charity in the position of recommending the lawyer and being paid by him for the introduction; donating nonlega…
May a lawyer serve as legal advisor to a physicians' malpractice newsletter, be named as its advisor, write a regular column, and speak at its seminars?
In the abstract, yes. The opinion concluded the four proposed activities are permissible as public legal education under EC 2-2, but cautioned the lawyer must avoid self-laudatory conduct that would v…
May a law firm contact former criminal-defense clients to tell them about a new expungement law under which they might be eligible for relief?
Yes. The opinion concluded the communication is consistent with DR 2-104(A)(1), which lets a lawyer accept employment from a former client based on unsolicited advice when the advice is germane to the…
May a lawyer for an asset-search business alert the owners of unclaimed funds and sign them to contingency contracts that pay the business a percentage of any recovery?
No. The opinion concluded the proposed conduct would breach DR 2-103, treating it as improper solicitation of employment from the owners of unclaimed funds, like searching for unknown heirs and solici…
When a lawyer runs for office in a service organization, can his campaign materials identify him as a lawyer and list his legal background?
Yes, in a limited and dignified way. The opinion concluded that identifying a lawyer-candidate as a lawyer with a brief legal resume falls within the recognized exception for political publicity, but …
Can a lawyer advertise services like tracing heirs for title clearance to the public, or announce that availability to other lawyers in a legal journal?
Advertising such services to the general public is improper, but the opinion concluded a lawyer may publish a dignified announcement of his availability as a consultant or associate to other lawyers i…
Can a lawyer advertise that he represents only poor people at reduced fees where the county has no free legal services?
No. The opinion concluded that charging fees scaled to a client's ability to pay is proper, but advertising or soliciting professional employment for a named lawyer on that basis would violate the pub…
Can a lawyer list his law-school graduation, bar admission, and new office in a university alumni booklet, and what may he list there?
Only a basic listing. The opinion concluded a lawyer may not advertise his graduation, bar passage, or office opening in an alumni booklet, which is not an approved law list, but may list only his nam…
Can a law firm put its firm name or the partners' names on a Christmas or other seasonal greeting card?
No, not in the firm name. The opinion adopted ABA Formal Opinion 309: seasonal greetings should not be sent in the firm name or in an attorney capacity, should not refer to the profession, and should …
Did Opinion 183's permission to list 'J.D., LL.M. (in Taxation)' apply to professional announcements?
Yes. This opinion clarified that the last sentence of Opinion 183, allowing the degree language, was a reply to an inquiry about the distribution of announcements, and so is directed to announcements.
Can a firm's announcement say that associating attorneys are with its 'Securities Law and Corporate Practice Department,' and may it be sent to lawyers?
Yes, to lawyers only. The opinion concluded that 'Securities Law and Corporate Practice' is a particular branch of law under Canon 46, so the inquirer may include that language in an announcement sent…
Can a lawyer list degrees like 'J.D., LL.M. (in Taxation)' after his name in a professional announcement?
Yes, to lawyers only. The opinion concluded that, under Canon 46, the inquirer may include the degree language 'J.D., LL.M. (in Taxation)' in an announcement he sends to the local bar.
Can a corporation's general counsel set up an office at the company to prepare wills and estate plans for employees who pay their own fees?
No. The opinion concluded the plan violated the Canons of Professional Ethics: it was not protected group legal practice, and it raised an employer intermediary problem (Canon 35), solicitation and ad…
Can a lawyer join a local volunteer ambulance corps or similar civic group?
Yes. The opinion concluded it is proper for an attorney to join a local volunteer ambulance corps, so long as the participation is not used to advertise for or solicit clients, directly or indirectly.
Can a lawyer who appears as a guest panelist on a TV legal-information show answer specific legal questions from the audience, and accept a viewer as a client afterward?
No. The opinion concluded that answering particular legal questions from audience members on a television program violates the Canons on advertising, intermediaries, and publications, and that accepti…
Is a non-compete clause in a law partnership agreement that bars a departing partner from practicing in the county ethical?
No. The opinion concluded that a restrictive covenant in a law partnership agreement (here, barring a withdrawing partner from practicing in the county for five years) is improper and unethical, becau…
May a retiring attorney send clients and friends a formal announcement that he has retired and arranged for another attorney to handle their future business?
The opinion concluded that such an announcement would be improper, because under Canon 27 it would be an indirect solicitation of employment for the other attorney; the retiring attorney's separate du…
May an attorney advertise in the law journal that he will handle tax lien foreclosures for other attorneys as a specialized legal service?
The opinion concluded the proposed advertisement was improper, because tax lien foreclosure work is not a specialized legal service within New Jersey's Canon 46 (which the Committee strictly construed…
May a New Jersey firm run a 'specialized legal services' announcement in a law journal advertising itself as New Jersey trial counsel for tort, contract, and product liability work?
The opinion concluded the announcement was improper, because the work of trial counsel is not a specialized legal service within Canon 46; any admitted attorney may try cases, and a lawyer's trial ski…
May a lawyer let his name appear on a motor club's published list of attorneys who have agreed to handle members' automobile property-damage claims?
The opinion disapproved the practice, concluding that letting a lawyer's name appear on a motor club's distributed list of attorneys violated Canon 43 because the list was not an approved law list, an…
Can the attorney for a residential developer, who also represents the construction lender, represent an individual buyer purchasing a home in the tract?
The Committee concluded that, unlike an isolated sale, a developer's attorney generally cannot also represent a home buyer, because the desire to keep the developer's and lender's business and his int…
Can a lawyer be engaged by a commercial collection agency to sue the debtors of the agency's customers?
No. The Committee concluded it is improper for an attorney to be engaged by a commercial collection agency to institute suit against debtors of the agency's customers, because the engagement lets a la…
Can a lawyer who takes over a dissolved firm's practice call himself 'successor to' that firm on his letterhead and notify the firm's old clients?
The Committee concluded the plan was improper. The phrase 'successor to' constituted solicitation barred by Canon 27, and because the firm had dissolved, its name could not be carried on by an individ…
Can a lawyer building an appellate-only practice mail announcements of that fact to other lawyers and place a notice in the New Jersey Law Journal?
The Committee concluded he could place a notice in the New Jersey Law Journal limited as Canon 46 prescribes, but could not mail announcements to other lawyers.
Can a lawyer accept retainers from a group of homeowners who were solicited as a class, when only one of them originally sought the lawyer's advice?
No. The Committee concluded the lawyer should not accept retainers from the solicited claimants, because soliciting strangers in the same class as an existing client improperly stirs up litigation; th…
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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.