Florida seeks comments on proposed opinion on whether to allow sharing of fees with firms that allow sharing of fees with non-lawyers

The Florida bar is likely to adopt an ethics opinion that would make it easier for Florida lawyers to enter into co-counsel relationships with law firms in which non-lawyers have ownership stake -- or, in other words, to share fees with firms that share fees with non-lawyers.  Only two jurisdictions in the US allow sharing fees with non-lawyers, but a number of foreign countries do.

This is a big change in approach since only two jurisdictions in the US currently allow sharing of fees with non-lawyers and it may open the door for even more changes including allowing lawyers to share fees with non-lawyers directly in Florida - which would be good news for Avvo, as discussed in previous posts below.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves, yet.  The draft opinion emphasizes that it does not address a Florida Bar member becoming a partner, shareholder, associate, or other formal arrangement in a law firm that is permitted to have non-lawyer ownership in its home jurisdiction.

The committee will accept comments on the proposed opinion until Aug. 15. If no comments are received, the opinion will become final five days later. If comments are received, the matter will be taken up at The Florida Bar's Fall Meeting on October 13.

You can read the proposed opinion here.

Avvo responds to NJ Opinion

Last month I reported (here) that three committees of the New Jersey Supreme Court issued a joint opinion concluding that it would be unethical to participate in Avvo Legal Services.  A few days ago, Avvo's Chief Legal Officer posted a reply to the opinion in the blog Socially Awkward.  The reply is short and, in my opinion, weak.  All it does is repeat some of the arguments the opinion rejected.  It also gets the constitutional standard that applies to the commercial speech doctrine wrong (as I have pointed out in the past).

For some of my previous posts on Avvo go here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.