Law.com Subscribers SAVE 30%

Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.

Committing Firm Resources to a Proposed Ancillary Business: A Checklist

By Joe Danowsky
August 12, 2003

The following discussion and checklist are based on guidance provided in Beyond Legal Practice: Organizing and Managing Ancillary Businesses. Thanks are due to The Hildebrandt Institute and author James W. Jones for permission to adapt their material. For details on this currently very popular booklet, see Hildebrandt's website, www.hildebrandtinstitute.com. (We're looking forward to more Hildebrandt advice on ancillary businesses: another topic from this popular booklet will be expanded upon in a future edition of the A&FP newsletter.)

What Makes a Business Ancillary?

As defined by Rule 5.7 of the ABA's Model Rules of Professional Conduct, ancillary businesses are those providing 'law-related services.' Rule 5.7 defines law-related services as those that 'might reasonably be performed in conjunction with and in substance are related to the provision of legal services and that are not prohibited as unauthorized practice of law when provided by a nonlawyer.' Citing Hazard & Hodes book The Law of Lawyering: A Handbook on the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, author Jones suggests that a law-related service is one a layperson might reasonably mistake for legal services if he or she saw a lawyer performing them. [Ed. note: By this clever heuristic, an ethics board would declare a proposed ancillary business legitimate specifically because a reasonable onlooker would misperceive it ' an unusual criterion indeed!]

This premium content is locked for Entertainment Law & Finance subscribers only

  • Stay current on the latest information, rulings, regulations, and trends
  • Includes practical, must-have information on copyrights, royalties, AI, and more
  • Tap into expert guidance from top entertainment lawyers and experts

For enterprise-wide or corporate acess, please contact Customer Service at [email protected] or 877-256-2473

Read These Next
Major Differences In UK, U.S. Copyright Laws Image

This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.

The Article 8 Opt In Image

The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.

Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin Image

With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.

Legal Possession: What Does It Mean? Image

Possession of real property is a matter of physical fact. Having the right or legal entitlement to possession is not "possession," possession is "the fact of having or holding property in one's power." That power means having physical dominion and control over the property.

The Stranger to the Deed Rule Image

In 1987, a unanimous Court of Appeals reaffirmed the vitality of the "stranger to the deed" rule, which holds that if a grantor executes a deed to a grantee purporting to create an easement in a third party, the easement is invalid. Daniello v. Wagner, decided by the Second Department on November 29th, makes it clear that not all grantors (or their lawyers) have received the Court of Appeals' message, suggesting that the rule needs re-examination.