Availability as Consultant in Law Journal and Lawyers Diary

99 N.J.L.J. 496
June 3, 1976

ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
 
Appointed by the New Jersey Supreme Court
 

OPINION 332

Availability as Consultant in
Law Journal and Lawyers Diary

The inquirer, a member of the New Jersey Bar, who is also a publisher of the New Jersey Law Journal and the Lawyers Diary and
Manual, including the Bar Directory of New Jersey, asks the opinion of this Committee on the following question:
Would it be proper for a member of the Bar of New Jersey to advertise his availability to act as a consultant to or associate with another attorney in a particular field of law by way of an insertion of a notice
 
(1) in the New Jersey Law Journal, a weekly publication, and
 
(2) in the New Jersey Lawyers Diary and Manual, an annual publication?
 
The inquirer further states that his "inquiry relates to an attorney advertising his availability to act as a consultant to or associate with another attorney in fields of law such as are approved for publication by the American Bar Association."
The inquirer further submits that the question should be answered in the affirmative on the basis of DR 2-105(A)(3) as applied in this Committee's Opinion 242, 95 N.J.L.J. 973 (1972), where we held:

The inquiry, however, may be construed also to inquire as to whether a professional announcement on this subject may be directed to other lawyers through insertion in the New Jersey Law Journal. It is our opinion that it may, so long as the announcement follows the mandate of DR 2-105(A)(3) which reads as follows:
 
A lawyer available to act as a consultant to or as an associate of other lawyers in a particular branch of law or legal service may distribute to other lawyers and publish in legal journals a dignified announcement of such availability, but the announcement shall not contain a representation of special competence or experience. The announcement shall not be distributed to lawyers more frequently than once in a calendar year, but it may be published periodically in legal journals.
 
Our prior Opinions 107 and 108, 90 N.J.L.J. 245 (1967), which limited such announcements to "specialized legal services" as there interpreted were governed by former Canons of Professional Ethics, Canon 46 without the amendments to that Canon adopted by the American Bar Association in 1946. Unlike those amendments, DR 2-105(A)(3) has now been adopted in New Jersey and in our opinion governs this aspect of the inquiry.
 
Similar inquiries were considered and answered affirmatively in 1974 by the Massachusetts Bar Association's Committee on Administration of Justice, Subcommittee on Ethics, in two separate opinions, namely, 74-4 and 74-11.
It is our considered opinion that our conclusion in Opinion 242 with reference to a professional announcement appearing in the
New Jersey Law Journal applies with equal force and effect to a similar announcement or list in the Lawyers Diary and Manual and Bar Directory of New Jersey, and therefore the proposed insertion is permissible.
* * *