After all, law firm mergers regularly take place without concerns for client rights and confidentiality of files. These sales are unregulated without concern for client rights. Still, lawyers could not sell their law practices under the Model Rules until 1990. Meanwhile, domestic relations courts across the country could value lawyers' practices, and a sole practitioner's practice was worth more to a divorcing spouse than to a widow. Because lawyers with an interest in a partnership or corporate entity may currently be paid for their interest or shares, Model Rule 1.17 benefits the sole practitioner.
Sole practitioners make up a large percentage of the legal profession.
Today, a sole practitioner planning retirement must make sure that clients find other counsel, as he or she phases out the practice, or else the solo needs to attract an associate or partner to whom the practice can later be sold. Rule 1.17's guidelines, designed to protect clients' interests, eliminate the old subterfuge where some lawyers negotiated inflated values for the practice's physical assets or accounts receivable. The new rule also benefits an estate of a deceased lawyer, permitted the sale of a law practice, including its goodwill, in a single transaction. By prescribing ethical conduct in the sale, and safeguarding client confidentiality, Model Rule 1.17 protects the client. The opportunity to represent those clients who consent to the transfer of their files to the buyer becomes part of the sales transaction.