The ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 has decided that it will not develop a proposal for consideration by the association\’s policy-making House of Delegates on whether nonlawyers should be allowed to have some form of limited ownership interest in U.S. law firms. In a joint statement released today, co-chairs Jamie S. Gorelick and Michael Traynor confirmed that the commission agreed at its meeting last week in Washington, D.C., to shelve plans to submit a proposal on nonlawyer ownership for consideration by the House in when it convenes during February\’s 2013 ABA Midyear Meeting in Dallas. Gorelick and Traynor indicated that feedback received from other bar associations and individual members of the profession did not suggest a groundswell of support for revising the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct to permit a limited form of nonlawyer ownership. The Model Rules, which are the direct basis for professional conduct…
It turns out that there is distinct lack of enthusiasm in the profession for rules diluting the “core value” of lawyer control of law firms. Should we be surprised? Does this and the end of Jacoby & Meyers’ Quixotic assault on New York’s version of Rule 5.4 may mean the United States will remain an exception as non-lawyers become increasingly involved in the provision of legal services?
Kafkaesq 