A pre-recorded streaming video replay from the March 2018 webcast, Ethics of Lawyer Advertising.
Course Benefits
Featuring ethics superstars Jim McCauley and Tom Spahn
- Advertising your practice is important; doing it right even more so
- Understand the limits on marketing through the various channels of communication
- Avoid the temptation of attractive, though impermissible, means of advertising
Many will remember the time when lawyer advertising consisted of referrals from professional colleagues, discreetly provided business cards, and a shiny brass plaque outside the office. No more. Television commercials, print advertisements, direct mail, web sites, e-mail, social media: regardless of the channel of communication, lawyers are utilizing them to attract new clients. Virginia recently has simplified its regulation of lawyer advertising in Rule 7.1 to simply, “A lawyer shall not make a false or misleading communication about the lawyer or the lawyer’s services.” But is it so simple?
We’ve assembled the dream team of ethics experts—Jim McCauley and Tom Spahn—to explore this still-contentious area. Among the topics to be discussed:
- Constitutional limits of regulation of lawyer’s speech
- Claims of expertise, or inclusion on honorary lists
- Direct and indirect solicitations
- Marketing through social media, such as blogs, texts, and daily deals
- Favorable, and unfavorable, “reviews” of lawyer services on consumer websites
- Internet marketing arrangements including for-profit referral services, online matching platforms, Groupon, Deal of the Day, etc.