ETHICS OPINION 592-1971 SIGNS.

NUMBER 592

QUESTION.

 

Is it proper for a New York law; firm to place a sign on the wall adjacent to the doors leading to its offices reading as follows:

 

NEW JERSEY COUNSEL:

(NAME OF NEW JERSEY FIRM)

(ADDRESS OF NEW JERSEY FIRM)

 

The purpose of the sign is to identify the location of the corporation meeting of New York corporations that the New Jersey attorneys represent, as clients in New Jersey. One of the members of the New Jersey firm is admitted to the New York Bar and is associated with the New York firm.

 

ANSWER.

 

Irrespective of its purpose it constitutes improper advertising for the New York law firm to list an out-of-state or foreign firm as “counsel” or “correspondent” or by any designation of similar import either on the New York firm’s letterhead or on the entrance to its offices. See N.Y. City 847 and 867. The mere fact that a member of the New Jersey firm is admitted to practice in New York and practices law at the offices in question as an associate of the New York firm does not establish such location as an office of the New Jersey law firm. Under the circumstances proposed in the question, reference to the New Jersey firm on the New York firm’s door would not be justified.

 

November 4, 1971