NEW RULES - ATTORNEY ADVERTISING

The New York court system’s administrative board has lifted the ban on law firms advertising their services under trade or domain names but still bans names that are false, deceptive or misleading.

The press release can be found at this link:

 https://www.nycourts.gov/LegacyPDFS/press/pdfs/AV20_08.pdf

ON ATTORNEY RATINGS

This is the age of ratings. Of the two largest I know, I rank very high:

Avvo:  https://www.avvo.com/attorneys/11756-ny-jon-probstein-808277.html

Martindale-Hubbell: http://www.martindale.com/Jon-Michael-Probstein/144480-lawyer.htm

But what do these really mean? In December 2015, the New York State Bar Association Committee on Attorney Professionalism issued a Report on Attorney Ratings to address certain aspects of the use of attorney - ratings services. The purpose of this Report was to highlight various relevant considerations that may be applicable to the use of ratings and set forth some suggested guidelines concerning their use and sought to identify important considerations and recommended practices regarding the use of attorney - ratings services by attorneys and by potential and existing clients.

To read the full report, see https://www.nysba.org/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=60562

ATTORNEYS AND LINKEDIN

The New York County Lawyers Association Professional Ethics Committee on March 11, 2015 issued a "Formal Opinion 780" on attorney LinkedIn profiles.  The decision, states, in relevant part:

“A LinkedIn profile that contains only one’s education and current and past employment does not constitute Attorney Advertising. If an attorney includes additional information in his or her profile, such as a description of areas of practice or certain skills or endorsements, the profile may be considered Attorney Advertising, and should contain the disclaimers set forth in Rule 7.1.” For those of you on LinkedIn, please review your profile. If your profile fits into Attorney Advertising, as defined by the recent ethics opinion, you must include a disclaimer from Rule 7.1 (i.e., “Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.”).

The full opinion can be found at this link:

http://www.nycla.org/siteFiles/Publications/Publications1748_0.pdf