(thanks to rizoning.com)
Here is more on the North Carolina Bill to permit non-lawyers to own law firms and have ABS from Neil Rose at Legal Futures. It seems to have taken everyone by surprise.
He quotes Mitt Regan of Georgetown saying that for large law firms there would be problems elsewhere in states that wouldn't permit this type of ownership. Yet multidisciplinary practices are accepted in Washington, DC. Perhaps US law firms could become Swiss vereins and get round it that way.... Highly unlikely, I know, but never underestimate the ingenuity of lawyers.
Comments
The particularly relevant piece of the opinion reads as follows:
"Thus, the committee interprets DR 1-102(B) as not banning the
D.C. law firm from conducting activities in D.C. benefitting
Virginia clients (through a licensed Virginia Bar member), but
only as banning the practice of law in Virginia by a law firm
which includes a non-lawyer partner."
The opinion was based on ABA Formal Opinion No. 91-360 (7/11/91).
Thoughts?