Earlier this month, the New York State Bar Association House of Delegates adopted revisions to the New York Lawyers Code of Professional Responsibility aimed at providing lawyers with a better understanding of the revisions to New York's disciplinary rules regarding attorney advertising which went into effect in February of this year. You may recall that there was a good deal of controversy over those revisions, which prompted an outpouring of comments and protests from New York lawyers and a challenge to the rules in a case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York Alexander v. Cahill (see my previous post about the decision here).
Now, the NYSBA House of Delegates has adopted some new ethical considerations within the Code of Professional Responsibility which are designed to clarify some of the disciplinary rules. The complete code can be found on the NYSBA website here. The ethical considerations regarding lawyer advertising rules can be found beginning at page 16. The disciplinary rules themselves begin on page 26.
Nicole Black, author of the blog Sui Generis, has provided a good outline of the new ethical considerations in her post entitled, NY Lawyers Code of Professional Responsibility Updated Regarding Lawyer Advertising. However, it is important to note that the disciplinary rules themselves and not the ethical considerations are what form the basis for disciplinary actions against attorneys. Enforcement of the disciplinary rules which were the subject of the constitutional challenge in Alexander v. Cahill is currently enjoined, but the disciplinary rules themselves have not been revised again by the Appellate Division.
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