ETHICS OPINION 451-1956 ADVERTISING

NUMBER 451

QUESTION.

 

The lawyers of whose advertisements your Committee disapproved in answer to Question 432 because, not being admitted to the Mexican Bar, it was completely misleading for them to advertise as specialists, continue advertising as follows:

 

“Mexican Consultant

Mexican law and practice

XYZ, Esq.

0 Broadway. Worth 0-0000”

 

“Mexican Laws (specializing)

A & B, successors

to X, 00 W, 00 Street

Pennsylvania 0-0000”

 

There is another advertisement by a New York lawyer who, on June 30, 1948, was disciplined by the Appellate Division, First Department, for unprofessional conduct in soliciting business through advertisements and who, although not a member of the Mexican Bar, is advertising in the New York Law Journal as follows:

 

“Mexican Law Consultant: Latin American

Commissions. A, 0 West 00 Street,

Longacre 0-0000”

 

Are these advertisements any less misleading than the former of which your Committee disapproved?

As I understand it, the word “consultant” or “of counsel” means a veteran lawyer, a sort of lawyers’ lawyer to be consulted in cases of extreme importance and difficulty. Yet, these men are not even members of the Mexican Bar, they are not even Mexican lawyers. Neither are the others who claim to be specializing in Mexican laws.

 

Is not the wording of these advertisements as unsatisfactory as that of the former?

 

ANSWER.

Advertising is expressly prohibited by Canon 27 of the Canons of Professional Ethics. The only exception is to be found in Canon 46, which provides that:

 

“A lawyer available to act as an associate of other lawyers in a particular branch of the law or legal service may send to local lawyers only and publish in his local legal journal, a brief and dignified announcement of his availability to serve other lawyers in connection therewith. The announcement should be in a form which does not constitute a statement or representation of special experience or expertness.”

 

Advertisements such as those here under consideration are permissible only when they come within the strict terms of Canon 46. An announcement permissible within the terms of Canon 46 should contain a statement indicating that the service available is being offered to other attorneys and net to the general public. The advertisements involved are deficient in this respect.

 

Also, under Canon 46 the announcement “should be in a form which does not constitute a statement or representation of special experience or expertness” We believe that the quoted advertisements do contain a representation of special experience or expertness.

 

Finally, in the opinion of the Committee, the advertisements are misleading in that they do not reveal the fact that these advertisers are not members of the Mexican Bar.

 

Dated: June 21, 1956