|
NEW YORK STATE BAR ASSOCIATION
Committee on Professional Ethics
Opinion #756 – 03/13/2002
|
Topic: Advertisement of Legal Services; Street Address; Web Site or
E-mail Address
|
|
Digest: Legal
services advertisement may not list Web site or e-mail address as sole
address, but must also include street address of lawyer’s
office.
|
|
Code: DR 1-102(A)(4), 2-101(A), 2-101(D), 2-101(K); EC
2-10.
|
QUESTION
Must every advertisement of legal services include the street address
of the lawyer or firm whose services are being offered or is it
sufficient for the advertisement to include only a website or e-mail
address?
OPINION
DR 2-101(K) requires that “all advertisements of legal services
shall include the name, office address and telephone number of the
attorney or law firm whose services are being offered.” With
the proliferation of the Internet, the World Wide Web and the use of
electronic mail, the question arises whether an attorney may satisfy
this mandate by use of a website address or e-mail address without the
attorney’s street address.
In N.Y. State 709 (1998) the Committee considered the use of the
Internet to advertise and conduct a law practice. In the section
of that opinion on advertising on the Internet, we observed both that
“the Code’s advertising rules are intended to protect the
public from false and misleading advertisements” and also that
“there is no ethical distinction to be drawn among different forms
of advertising directed to a general population.”
While we have found no explicit definition of the words “office
address” as used in DR 2-101(K), we believe the use of a web site
or e-mail address as the sole identifier of a firm’s office
address does not satisfy the requirement of DR 2-101(K). See DR
1-102(A)(4), DR 2-101(A) and DR 2-101(D). Prior to the advent of
the Internet, the accepted meaning of the words “office
address” was a physical, street address at which the principal
office of the firm or lawyer offering legal services is located and to
which mail, express deliveries and other communications can be
addressed. The dictionary definition is instructive:
“[a] place where business is conducted or services are performed
.” Black’s Law Dictionary 1112
(7th Ed. 1999).
That definition, with its emphasis on a physical place, served
– and serves – several useful purposes. Consistent
with the goal embodied in EC 2-10, the provision of a street address in
advertising of a lawyer’s or law firm’s services should
facilitate a prospective client’s ability to make an intelligent
selection of a lawyer. The absence of a street address in a widely
disseminated advertisement could be misleading by suggesting a physical
proximity to the recipient that does not in fact exist and by suggesting
the ability to serve in jurisdictions in which the advertising firm or
lawyer is not qualified to practice. See
DR 2-101(A), DR 2-101(D).
The requirement of a street address in lawyer advertising also serves
the same purposes as Judiciary Law §470, which requires
non-resident New York attorneys to maintain an “office for the
transaction of law business … within the state.” The
basic purpose of that requirement is to ensure that attorneys practicing
in this state are amenable to contact by their clients, adversaries and
other interested parties. See
Lichtenstein v. Emerson, 171 Misc. 2d 933, 656 N.Y.S.2d 180 (Sup.
Ct. 1997), aff’d 251 A.D.2d 64, 674 N.Y.S.2d 298
(1st Dep’t 1998); White River Paper Co. v. Ashmont Tissue, Inc.,
110 Misc. 2d 373, 441 N.Y.S.2d 960 (Sup. Ct. 1981). Similarly, the requirement that an
advertisement include the street address of the advertising attorney
facilitates the ability of a client or prospective client to find the
attorney and meet with the attorney at a known physical location.
The indication of a physical address also facilitates the personal
service or delivery of legal papers and other correspondence where that
mode of delivery is elected.
Nothing in the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web leads us
to believe that there has been any change in that accepted definition of
“office address” or in the salutary purposes it
advances. See N.Y. State 709,
supra, and opinions cited therein.
Thus we believe that the inclusion of a web site or e-mail address as
the sole address in an advertisement of legal services does not satisfy
the requirement of DR 2-101(K) and we conclude that every such
advertisement must include, inter alia,
the street address of the office of the advertising lawyer or law
firm.
CONCLUSION
Advertising for legal services may not list a website or email
address as the sole address, but must also include the street address of
the lawyer’s office.
(19-01)
Related Files
Advertisement of Legal Services; Street Address; Web Site or E-mail Address (Adobe PDF File)
| 
