Sentences with phrase «non-lawyer ownership interests»

The issue of non-lawyer ownership interests in legal practices is not the only context in which the «idiom of professionalism» [5] has been used in debate about legal ethics over the years.

While the Commission called for comment on a number of significant issues, my comments focused on alternative providers of legal services and regulatory innovations, including non-lawyer ownership interest in law firms.

Not exact matches

In England, laws were passed in 2004 and 2007 that effectively now permit non-lawyers to manage and take ownership interests in law firms.

The Court also enacted new attorney Rules of Professional Conduct in March 2015, which allows LLLTs to own a minority interest in law firms with lawyers, making Washington the first U.S. state to formally permit alternative business structures (ABSs), which is generally defined as non-lawyer investment and / or ownership in law firms.

Washington State is now the first state [1] to allow alternative business structures (ABSs), whereby non-lawyers are authorized to share fees with lawyers and have ownership interests in law firms via the recently approved Limited License Legal Technician (LLLT) Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC).

With the current self — regulation of the legal profession, non-lawyers aren't allowed to have any ownership interests in a firm.

The arguments for the opponents are said to be that (i) owners who are not themselves providing legal services are not personally invested in the labour of the enterprise and will accordingly be interested only in profits and not professional ideals and norms, (ii) non-lawyer ownership creates the potential for conflicts between the duties owed to investors and the duties owed to clients and the justice system, (iii) providing non-legal services together with legal services creates greater risk of misuse of confidential client information and unauthorized practice of law.

This suggests that jurisdictions adopting non-lawyer ownership should consider banning, or at least more heavily regulating, this type of ownership where the potential for conflict of interest is high, such as insurance companies owning personal injury law firms.

Adam Smith, Esq. asks «Is the prohibition against non-lawyers having an ownership interest in a law firm still a good idea?»