Professional Responsibility Committee of the California Bar issues opinion on whether a blog should be subject to advertising rules

The Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility of the State Bar of California recently issued an advisory opinion on whether “blogging” by an attorney is, or should be, subject to the requirements and restrictions of the Rules of Professional Conduct and related provisions of the State Bar Act regulating attorney advertising.  The answer, summarized below, is pretty straight forward and are pretty much what I suggested would be the logical answer to the question when I first blogged about it a few years ago (here).

The opinion is available here and the summary is as follows:

1. Blogging by an attorney is subject to the requirements and restrictions of the Rules of Professional Conduct and the State Bar Act relating to lawyer advertising if the blog expresses the attorney’s availability for professional employment directly through words of invitation or offer to provide legal services , or implicitly through its description of the type and character of legal services offered by the attorney, detailed descriptions of case results, or both.

2. A blog that is a part of an attorney’s or law firm’s professional website will be subject to the rules regulating attorney advertising to the same extent as the website of which it is a part.

3. A stand-alone blog by an attorney that does not relate to the practice of law or [that] otherwise express[es] the attorney’s availability for professional employment will not become subject to the rules regulating attorney advertising simply [even if] the blog contains a link to the attorney or law firm’s professional website.