MDPs between lawyers and nonlawyers should not be permitted due to the need to preserve independence, confidentiality and avoidance of conflict of interests. Professionalism versus commercialism . The lawyer cannot accept a purely commercial concept of the practice of law which equates the profession to a mere business concern and leaves behind his professional principles. This is because his or her is the exercise of a liberal and independent profession. If absolute and unlimited independence is a fundamental principle of the legal profession, if such independence characterizes the lawyer and constitutes an essential element of his or her identity, if such independence is the source of most of the lawyer's ethical rules, the author respectfully suggests that the Model Rules clearly and adequately recognize this as a principle of principles.
Independence is a fundamental right and a duty of the lawyer.
Such independence is as necessary to trust in the process of justice as the impartiality of the judge.