New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 22 - JUDICIARY › Subtitle B - Courts › Chapter IV - Supreme Court › Subchapter E - All Departments › Part 1200 - Rules of Professional Conduct › Subpart - Law Firms and Associations › Section 1200.5.8 - Contractual relationship between lawyers and nonlegal professionals

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10,
						2024
(a)
						The practice of law has an essential tradition of complete independence and
						uncompromised loyalty to those it serves. Recognizing this tradition, clients
						of lawyers practicing in New York State are guaranteed "independent
						professional judgment and undivided loyalty uncompromised by conflicts of
						interest." Indeed, these guarantees represent the very foundation of the
						profession and allow and foster its continued role as a protector of the system
						of law. Therefore, a lawyer must remain completely responsible for his or her
						own independent professional judgment, maintain the confidences and secrets of
						clients, preserve funds of clients and third parties in his or her control, and
						otherwise comply with the legal and ethical principles governing lawyers in New
						York State.
Multi-disciplinary practice between
						  lawyers and nonlawyers is incompatible with the core values of the legal
						  profession and therefore, a strict division between services provided by
						  lawyers and those provided by nonlawyers is essential to protect those values.
						  However, a lawyer or law firm may enter into and maintain a contractual
						  relationship with a nonlegal professional or nonlegal professional service firm
						  for the purpose of offering to the public, on a systematic and continuing
						  basis, legal services performed by the lawyer or law firm as well as other
						  nonlegal professional services, notwithstanding the provisions of Rule 1.7(a),
						  provided that:
(1) the
						profession of the nonlegal professional or nonlegal professional service firm
						is included in a list jointly established and maintained by the Appellate
						Divisions pursuant to Section
						1205.3 of the Joint Appellate
						Division Rules;
(2)
						the lawyer or law firm neither grants to the nonlegal professional or nonlegal
						professional service firm, nor permits such person or firm to obtain, hold or
						exercise, directly or indirectly, any ownership or investment interest in, or
						managerial or supervisory right, power or position in connection with the
						practice of law by the lawyer or law firm, nor, as provided in Rule 7.2(a)(1),
						shares legal fees with a nonlawyer or receives or gives any monetary or other
						tangible benefit for giving or receiving a referral; and
(3) the fact that the
						contractual relationship exists is disclosed by the lawyer or law firm to any
						client of the lawyer or law firm before the client is referred to the nonlegal
						professional service firm, or to any client of the nonlegal professional
						service firm before that client receives legal services from the lawyer or law
						firm; and the client has given informed written consent and has been provided
						with a copy of the "Statement of Client's Rights In Cooperative Business
						Arrangements" pursuant to section
						1205.4 of the Joint Appellate
						Divisions Rules.