Board of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court of Tennessee Ethics Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of legal ethics opinions issued by the Board of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, with full citations and source links on every page.
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Can a Tennessee lawyer participate in an online marketplace where clients post legal projects and lawyers submit fee quotes, without it being an improper referral service?
Formal Ethics Opinion 2018-F-165 concludes that a legal marketplace website where clients post projects and lawyers submit fee quotes is not an intermediary organization (lawyer referral service) and …
Can a Tennessee lawyer be employed by a nonlawyer company that markets and sells living-trust packages to the public, reviewing the trusts the company prepares?
Formal Ethics Opinion 96-F-139 concluded that a lawyer's participation in the described living-trust company would violate the former Code of Professional Responsibility. If the company's or its agent…
Can a state Attorney General seek and receive court-awarded attorney's fees at prevailing market rates rather than at the State's actual cost of providing the legal services?
Formal Ethics Opinion 91-F-125 concluded that the Tennessee Attorney General may request and receive awards of attorney's fees to the State based on prevailing market rates, not limited to a cost-base…
Does the rule allowing a metropolitan bar association's referral service to charge a percentage fee also apply to a statewide trial lawyers association's referral service?
The opinion concluded that the financing rule approved in Opinion 88-F-115 extends to any lawyer referral service operated by a bar association representative of the general bar of its geographical ar…
Can a bar association's nonprofit lawyer referral service require participating lawyers to contribute a percentage of fees from referrals to help finance the service?
The opinion concluded that a nonprofit bar association's lawyer referral service may require participating lawyers to contribute up to ten percent of the net fee from a referral, so long as the contri…
Can a lawyer's client hire a non-testifying medical consulting firm on a contingent fee to help prepare the medical side of a malpractice case?
The opinion held there was no impropriety in the attorney continuing in the case where the client, not the lawyer, contracted separately and independently with the medical consulting firm on a conting…
Can an attorney who takes default judgments on accounts referred by a collection agency be paid a flat hourly rate by the agency, with collected attorney's fees routed through the agency's trust account?
The opinion held there is no impropriety in the attorney maintaining an attorney-client relationship with the creditor through the collection agency acting as the creditor's agent, but the attorney mu…
Can an attorney who takes default judgments on accounts referred by a collection agency be paid a flat hourly rate by the agency, with collected attorney's fees routed through the agency's trust account?
The opinion held that once a collection matter is referred to the attorney, the attorney must immediately establish a direct attorney-client relationship with the creditor, with the collection agency …
Can a lawyer join a trade exchange or barter group that charges a percentage fee on every transaction, without a trade broker or approval process for the trades?
No. The opinion concluded that an attorney is ethically prohibited from participating in a trade exchange association or barter group that charges a fee or membership charge on each transaction, becau…
Can a Tennessee lawyer who is a vowed member of a communal religious order turn his legal fees over to the order, as the order's rules require?
No. The opinion held it improper for an attorney to share his legal fees with the communal religious order to which he belongs, even though all members are required to turn over outside income, becaus…
When does a franchise-marketing company's in-house counsel cross into the unauthorized practice of law by preparing trademark, copyright, and franchise-disclosure documents for franchisor clients?
Only when it looks like legal work. The opinion concluded the described services (trademark and copyright applications, franchise disclosures, and state registrations) are not the practice of law if t…
Can a lawyer divide a contingency fee with co-counsel who was suspended from practice before the fee was paid, and can he employ a suspended attorney in a non-legal role?
Fee yes, employment no. The opinion concluded a lawyer may divide a fee with a suspended attorney based solely on the work performed and responsibility assumed before the suspension, with the client's…
Can a company's in-house lawyer perform legal services for the company's customers and let the company bill the customers for that work?
No. The opinion concluded that a corporation may use lawyer-employees for its own legal affairs but not to perform legal services for others, which would be the unauthorized practice of law; corporate…
Can a collections attorney deposit earned legal fees into an interest-bearing trust account and remit the accumulated excess interest to the clients?
No. The opinion concluded that remitting excess interest earned on an attorney's own fees to the client is an improper division of the attorney's fee with the client, and that the Code's requirements …
Can a lawyer join a barter system that assigns members a trade broker, requires referral by that broker before services are rendered, and charges a 10% fee on every transaction?
No. The opinion concluded that a barter system requiring approval of every trade by the system office, assigning each member a trade broker, permitting services only after referral by that broker, and…
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Legal ethics opinions from the Board of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court of Tennessee 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.