Contracting with Management Firm to Administer Law Office
Adopted: April 27, 2001
Opinion rules that there is no prohibition on a law firm entering into a contract with a management firm to administer the firm provided the lawyers in the firm can fulfill their ethical duties including the duty to exercise independent professional judgment, the duty to protect and safe keep client property, and the duty to maintain client confidences.
Inquiry:
Law Firm wants to enter into a contract with a management company that will oversee the day-to-day administration of the firm. Among other things, the company will employ all of the non-lawyer employees of the firm. The company will be responsible for the hiring and training of employees. The company will also provide all accounting, marketing, human resources, and information-technology systems for the firm. The firm's only employees will be the lawyers. The company will execute confidentiality agreements with the law firm and all employees of the company will also sign confidentiality agreements.
May Law Firm enter into this business relationship?
Opinion:
There is nothing in the Revised Rules of Professional Conduct that prohibits such a business relationship per se. However, a law firm may not relinquish control of the firm in a manner that gives a nonlawyer the power or authority to direct or control the professional activities of the lawyers in the firm. See Rule 5.4. Moreover, the delegation of administration of the firm to an outside company does not relieve the lawyers in the firm from their professional responsibilities to maintain the confidences of clients and to safe-keep the property of clients. See Rules 1.6 and 1.15. These duties may be more difficult to fulfill when using an independent management firm and when the nonlawyers in the firm are employees of the management firm and not the law firm. With regard to client confidences, the lawyers also have a duty to insure that the use of an outside management firm does not compromise a client's right to assert the attorney-client privilege to prevent the disclosure of confidential client information in a court proceeding.
Maintaining independent professional judgment also means that the lawyers in the firm may not split legal fees with the management company. See Rule 5.4(a). If the management company is allowed to share in the fees of the firm, especially by compensation based upon a percentage of the revenue of the firm, the management company may attempt to maximize its earnings to the detriment of the representation of clients. Restatement (Third) of the Law Governing Lawyers §10 Com. b. Nevertheless, if a financial arrangement can be worked out with the management company for a flat fee or other means of payment that is not tied to profits, the rules are not intended to prevent, as stated in the Restatement, "new and useful ways of providing legal services or [make] sure that nonlawyers do not profit indirectly from legal services in circumstances and under arrangements presenting no significant risk of harm to clients or third persons." Id .