ETHICS OPINION 264-1928

ETHICS OPINION 264

NUMBER 264 1928

Question. We (a firm of practicing lawyers) have been asked by the publishers of a trade magazine and by a trade association, many members of which we represent, to conduct a column (under our name as contributors) on such legal topics as, in our opinion, may be of interest to them, or upon such topics as they may. from time to time, suggest. We do not expect remuneration.

Is it the opinion of the Committee that there is any professional impropriety in complying with the request?

 

Answer. In the opinion of the Committee, there is no professional impropriety disclosed in the question, but the lawyers should not utilize the cover of the publication to advise inquirers respecting their legal rights. In the Committee’s answer in Opinion 203 it said in part, “it considers that the answering of questions respecting the legal rights of the inquirers to whom the attorney does not sustain a professional relation is not to be approved because it tends to diminish the sense of personal responsibility of the attorney to the person so inquiring, and it introduces an intermediary who furnishes the professional service.”