| LEO Num | Topics | Summary | Date |
1743
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| [WITHDRAWN 9/16] Virginia lawyers may not form a partnership or LLC with foreign legal consultants (not admitted in any state) if any of the activities would constitute the practice of law. [The new foreign legal consultant rule (Rule1A:7) permits foreign legal consultants to be partners of Virginia firms in certain situations.] | 4/13/2000 |
0828
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| A foreign citizen who is not licensed to practice law in the United States may not indicate on letterhead that the lawyer is a legal adviser to various countries, since it would tend to be misleading. [The new foreign legal consultant rule (Rule 1A:7) may permit this activity.] | 9/23/1986 |
1130
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| A foreign lawyer may refer cases to a Virginia lawyer and retain one-half of the fee as long as the lawyers comply with the fee-splitting rules (including client consent and assumption by both lawyers of responsibility to the client). [This LEO was overruled by Rule 1.5(e), which does not require that a lawyer sharing in fees also share responsibility, thus allowing "referral fees" if the client consents after full disclosure.] | 10/18/1988 |
1154
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| A foreign state bar would have jurisdiction over a foreign lawyer's actions in that state. [Rule 8.5 determines which state's disciplinary rule would apply to violations.] | 11/2/1988 |
0197
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| A law firm may use a non-Virginia lawyer to search titles as long as the lawyer does not render services to firm clients. | 10/1/1968 |
1143
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| A law firm's letterhead should indicate the jurisdictional limitations of any of the listed lawyers' practices. A non-Virginia lawyer may negotiate with a Virginia lawyer without engaging in the unauthorized practice of law. | 10/26/1988 |
ABA-464
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| A lawyer may ethically share fees with another lawyer who is authorized to participate in the matter and share fees, even if that other lawyer practices in a law firm (in jurisdictions like the District of Columbia and the United Kingdom) owned in part by nonlawyers. Model Rule 5.4(a) generally prohibits fee-sharing with a nonlawyer, although it contains an exception "for firm compensation and retirement plans [which] depends on whether the profits being shared are 'tied to particular clients or particular matters.'" (citation omitted); "[A] division of a legal fee by a lawyer or law firm in a Model Rules jurisdiction with a lawyer or law firm in another jurisdiction that permits the sharing of legal fees with nonlawyers does not violate Model Rule 5.4(a) simply because a nonlawyer could ultimately receive some portion of the fee under the applicable law of the other jurisdiction."; Among other things, "there is no reason to believe that the nonlawyer in the [other jurisdiction] might actually influence the independent professional judgment of the lawyer in the Model Rules jurisdiction, who practices in a different firm, in a different jurisdiction." | 8/19/2013 |
1342
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| A lawyer may include a non-Virginia lawyer as "of counsel" on the firm's letterhead, but the characterization must be accurate. Providing business advice and financial assistance to the firm does not create an "of counsel" relationship. | 4/20/1990 |
1434
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| A lawyer may not threaten to bring criminal charges to gain a civil advantage. A lawyer not a member of the Virginia Bar is not subject to Virginia's disciplinary rules, but the lawyer's conduct "may be of interest to the disciplinary body of the jurisdiction in which he is licensed to practice." [Under Rule 8.5, a non Virginia lawyer is subject to Virginia discipline if providing services in Virginia.] | 10/21/1991 |
495
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| A lawyer's "physical presence in the local jurisdiction [where she is physically located while representing clients in other jurisdictions] is incidental; it is not for the practice of law" — as long as the lawyer "is for all intents and purposes invisible as a lawyer to a local jurisdiction where the lawyer is physically located, but not licensed." Thus, such a lawyer does not violate ABA Model Rule 5.5 as long as she does not hold out to the public that she is authorized to practice in that jurisdiction, and does not practice that jurisdiction's law. Although a jurisdiction might consider that conduct to be the unauthorized practice of law, and has an interest in ensuring that such a lawyer is "competent," such a "local jurisdiction has no real interest in prohibiting a lawyer from practicing the law of a jurisdiction in which that lawyer is licensed and therefore qualified to represent clients in that jurisdiction." Maine LEO 189 (2005) and Utah LEO 19-03 agree with this analysis. Among the various ABA Model Rule 5.5 provisions allowing lawyers to practice in a jurisdiction where they are not licensed, lawyers can also rely on ABA Model Rule 5.5 (c)(4's) provision permitting "temporary" practice under specified conditions where they are not licensed — and "[h]ow long that temporary period lasts could vary significantly based on the need to address the pandemic." | 12/16/2020 |
0440
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| A multi-jurisdictional law firm may include Virginia lawyers in the firm's retainer agreements without listing the non-Virginia lawyers. | 11/18/1981 |
0858
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| A multi-state law firm must indicate on its letterhead which lawyers are members of the Virginia State Bar and which are not, and may include a footnote indicating that the non-Virginia lawyers are admitted in other states. | 11/10/1986 |
0393
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| A non-Virginia lawyer may own and operate a legal clinic in Virginia as long as the corporation is domesticated and all legal services are performed by Virginia lawyers. | 12/15/1980 |
0388
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| A non-Virginia lawyer who is a registered patent lawyer may practice trademark law in Virginia and create a partnership with Virginia lawyers as long as the partnership only practices before the Patent & Trademark Office. [USPTO ethics rules preempt any Virginia ethics rules, and would allow such a partnership; Va. LEO 1843 (4/16/08)] | 8/7/1980 |
1636
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| A Virginia firm bills its clients for the firm's costs, as well as costs incurred by foreign law firms. The Virginia firm does not place the client reimbursement checks in its trust account, and sometimes reimburses the foreign law firms many months later.If the Virginia firm has already paid the foreign law firm for its costs, then the Virginia firm may place the client's reimbursement checks in its operating account. However, the reimbursement checks must be placed in the trust account if the foreign law firms have not yet been reimbursed. Likewise, the Virginia firm may not use the clients' reimbursement checks for other purposes, but instead has an ethical duty to immediately pay the foreign law firms. | 4/19/1995 |
0325
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| A Virginia law firm and an out-of-state law firm may not use the same name and letterhead if they are not a partnership or share professional liability. | 6/6/1979 |
1843
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| Federal regulations governing "the specific practice of patent law before the USPTO" preempt the Virginia ethics rules, and thus allow a Virginia licensed lawyer on associate status to form a partnership with non-lawyer patent practitioners (as defined in the CFR) and share legal fees with non-lawyer registered patent agents. | 4/16/2008 |
1896
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| Following several other states, “Virginia has no interest in restricting the practice of a lawyer whose only connection to Virginia is a physical location within the state.”; Thus, non-Virginia lawyers may practice systematically and continuously “for any length of time,” “may have a public presence in Virginia and [are] not required to be ‘invisible’ within the state” -- as long as their work “involves the practice of the law of the [non-Virginia] lawyer’s licensing jurisdiction or exclusively federal law that does not require Virginia licensure.” Such lawyers must disclose that they are not licensed to practice in Virginia. | 1/11/2022 |
1026
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| If a law firm lists different states where its lawyers are licensed, the names of the lawyers should be included. A statement indicating that the law firm "serves" three jurisdictions might give the erroneous impression that each lawyer is licensed in those jurisdictions. | 2/1/1988 |
ABA-482
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| Lawyers who face or whose clients face the consequences of large-scale disasters such as hurricanes, floods, fires, etc.: (1) must comply with their communication duties, and therefore should maintain contact information for their clients and consider providing their own contact information to those clients; (2) if they continue to represent clients in the affected area, may be able to provide services outside their normal expertise, should evaluate in advance ways to assure that they will have the necessary client files and legal resources, keep track of litigation deadlines, take steps in advance to access trust funds and deal with affected financial institutions holding client or their own funds; (3) may have to withdraw from representations if they are unable to competently represent clients; (4) if they either permanently or temporarily re-locate to other jurisdictions, must comply with the multijurisdictional rules, other statutes and regulations of those jurisdictions; (5) must notify clients of the loss of "documents with intrinsic value" (such as executed wills, etc.), as well as other client or lawyer files that the lawyer cannot reconstruct after reasonable attempts to do so (to avoid such problems, lawyers should maintain copies of important documents in an off-site location," should consider returning all original documents and documents with intrinsic value created by the lawyer as a result of the representation to clients at the end of representation" and should also consider "including in fee agreements or engagement letters the understandings between the lawyer and the client about how the lawyer will handle documents once the representation has ended"); and (6) must avoid improper solicitation or other advertising in the wake of such disasters (remembering that they may solicit pro bono representations because those are not motivated by pecuniary gain). Out-of-state lawyers affected assisting clients in such affected areas must comply with the pertinent jurisdictions' multijurisdictional rules and other regulations. | 9/19/2018 |
1093
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| Two lawyers represent a felon. After the trial, the client advises one of the lawyers that the other lawyer (who is a member of an out-of-state bar) instructed the client to commit perjury. The lawyer must disclose this information to the tribunal and (if it raises a substantial question of the other lawyer's fitness to practice law) to the Virginia Bar and the bar of the state in which the other lawyer practices. [If information about the ethics violation is a client confidence, a lawyer may report the other lawyer's misconduct only if the client consents under Rule 1.6(c)(3); the lawyer considering whether to report must consult with the client under that Rule.] | 8/1/1988 |
ABA-423
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| U.S. law firms may include partners who are foreign lawyers, as long as the arrangement complies with U.S. and foreign law, and the foreigners are "members of a recognized legal profession in the foreign jurisdiction" (examples include lawyers in European Union countries, Great Britain, Japan, and Sweden); U.S. lawyers must avoid assisting in the unauthorized practice of law by foreign lawyers in the U.S., and should remember that many countries recognize only a narrow attorney-client privilege (for example, most civil law countries do not protect communications with in-house corporate counsel). | 9/22/2001 |
1856
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| Under Virginia Rule 5.5, non-Virginia lawyers "may not practice Virginia law on a 'systematic and continuous' basis," unless they (1) limit their practice to the "law of the jurisdiction/s where they are licensed"; (2) practice "exclusively federal law" under the federal supremacy clause (such as "lawyers with practices limited to immigration or military law or who practice before the Internal Revenue Service, the United States Tax Court, or the United States Patent and Trademark Office," although lawyers such as bankruptcy, patent or federal procurement lawyers must abide by courts' possible limitation of practice before the courts to members of the Virginia Bar, and may provide advice "such as the debtor's homestead exemption and status or priority of claims or liens" or "the assignment of the patent to a third party or the organization of a corporate entity to market or franchise the invention" only under the conditions mentioned immediately below; (3) "provide advice about Virginia law or matters peripheral to federal law (described immediately above) only if they do so on a "temporary and occasional" basis and (as stated in UPL Opinion 195) "under the direct supervision of a Virginia licensed lawyer before any of the [non Virginia] lawyer's work product is delivered to the client" or if they "associate with an active member of the Virginia State Bar." This liberal multijurisdictional practice approach (allowing non-Virginia lawyers to practice systematically and continuously in Virginia as long as they limit their practice to the law of jurisdictions where they are licensed) "embrac[es]" the approach of two earlier Virginia Supreme Court-approved Virginia UPL opinions (UPL Opinions 195 (2000) and 201 (2001)). Rule 5.5 overrules an earlier UPL Opinion about which law applies to a non Virginia lawyer's practice of another state's law while physically in Virginia; thus, "New York law should govern whether a foreign lawyer not authorized to practice in New York may advise New York clients on matters involving New York law. The [non Virginia] lawyer's physical presence in Virginia may not be a sufficient basis to apply Virginia's rules over New York's rules governing foreign lawyer practice." Contract lawyers hired to "work on a matter involving Virginia law" must either "be licensed in Virginia or work in association with a Virginia licensed lawyer in the firm on a temporary basis" although such a lawyer's practice "could be regarded as 'continuous and systematic" if the non Virginia contract lawyer is hired "to work on several and various Virginia matters/cases over a period of time." Such contract lawyers need not be licensed in Virginia if the lawyer is "hired to work only on matters involving federal law or the law of the jurisdiction in which the [non Virginia] contract lawyer is admitted." [Approved by the Supreme Court of Virginia 11/2/16]. | 9/11/2011 |