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What Lies Ahead for 2006

By Robert W. Denney
January 04, 2006

It doesn't take great foresight or a crystal ball to recognize that law firms will face some serious challenges in 2006. Coming events have already cast their shadows. Some of the challenges have existed for several years. Others are new. What they add up to are two basic questions most law firms must answer: “Do we recognize the challenges facing us?” and “How are we going to address them?” This article discusses several of these challenges and, where possible, suggests some alternatives for meeting them.

The issue of ethics is now one of the most troubling and confusing challenges. Many states continue to issue opinions that indicate the use of technology for client development is governed by ethics rules. Some of these states are adopting more relaxed rules regarding client development, largely as a result of the ABA's Ethics 2000 initiative. At the same time, however, other states  ' including Texas, South Carolina and Missouri ' have adopted changes in their rules that impose greater restrictions, particularly for personal injury lawyers. And, as of this writing, none of these diverse (dare we say “contradictory”?) rules have addressed the subject of blogs that, of course, are spreading like a prairie fire.

State ethics rules must take priority but these create even more challenges for firms that have multi-state locations. Must they follow the rules of the state in which their “headquarters office” is located or must they follow different rules in different states? Or can they “shop around” and decide to follow firm wide the more relaxed rules in one of the states in which they have offices? The answer to that question is probably “no” but who knows for sure?

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