A while back, I did some research on of counsel arrangements between law firms and lawyers. I didn’t find a lot of resources, but I found a few and thought I’d post them here as a little starter research packet.
All roads seem to point to Harold Wren and Beverly Glascock’s The Of Counsel Agreement, Third Edition : A Guide for Law Firm and Practitioner as the definitive work on the subject. It costs $89, so I concentrated on resources freely available on the internet. In most situations, however, the Wren and Glascock book will be a reasonable purchase (or worth a trip to a law school library).
Here’s my starter list:
- Graham Chynoweth’s Of Counsel: Meaning and Practice is a good, substantive review of Wren’s book.
- Greg Suess and Richardson Lynn’s The Of Counsel Role and its Implication for Law Firms is my favorite general article that covers most of the issues.
- McGuire Woods has a list of Legal Ethics Opinion Summaries involving Of Counsel Arrangements
- California Formal Ethics Opinion 1993-129 has a good discussion of the general ethical issues arising out of of counsel arrangements.
- Elizabeth Gorman’s Moving Away from Up or Out is a thoughtful and comprehensive academic article that discusses of counsel arrangements.
- Willian Freivogel discusses ethical issues in some common of counsel arrangements here.
- Nancy Gormans’ “The Of Counsel relationship” is a good overview introduction to the issues.
- Del O’Roark’s If it Looks Like a Parrot . . . is another solid introduction to the topic.
- Virtual Law, Inc. tells the story of a Hawaii “virtual law firm” that uses of counsel arrangements and has no associaties.
- Thomas Sukowicz’s Of Counsel Liability is a good, recent overview article on a wide variety of of counsel issues.
- The ALPS Risk Management Report – “Of Counsel” – At Least Two Different Points of View covers the issues from the view of a malpractice insurance carrier.
- Charles Slanina’s “Of Counsel”: Starting a sentence with a preposition can be a problem, too points out the unintended consequences of this type of arrangement.
- Peter Kennedy’s Perilous Practice discusses disqualification issues in California.
- The Florida Bar’s Of Counsel Information Packet is a 25-page set of helpful materials.
- The South Carolina Bar has a sample Of Counsel agreement.
This list should help you get started. I’ll note that much of the materials dates from several years ago and do not explore the ways of counsel arrangements might be used in non-traditional ways.
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]
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