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Washington State and ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct: Rule 7.2(c): "A lawyer shall not give anything of value to a person for recommending the lawyer's services ..." Rule 1.5(e): "A division of fee between lawyers who are not in the same firm may be made only if: (1) [made to a state or county bar's referral service]; or (2) The division is in proportion to the services provided by each lawyer or, by written agreement with the client, each lawyer assumes joint responsibility for the representation; the client is advised of and does not object to the participation of all the lawyers involved; and the total fee is reasonable." Official Comment 4 to ABA MRPC 1.5: "Paragraph (e) permits the lawyers to divide a fee on either the basis of the proportion of services they render or by agreement between the participating lawyers if all assume responsibility for the representation as a whole and the client is advised and does not object. It does not require disclosure to the client of the share that each lawyer is to receive." Explanation in Bar Ethics Opinions: The ABA Annotated MRPC (4th ed.), at pages 62-63, quotes the following passages from Pa. Bar. Ass'n Comm. on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility, Op. 96-176 (1997) [click here for the full opinion in PDF format]: "With this change, Rule 1.5 ma[kes] expressly permissible the long-recognized practice of paying referral fees in contingent fee cases where the referring lawyer did little or no work on the file before referring the client to a 'trial specialist'." And, "[R]ule's express language does not require that the lawyer go into any degree of detail concerning the referral relationship, its terms, or the precise division of the fees at issue."The Wash. St. Bar Association interprets Rule 1.5(e) the same as does the Penn. St. Bar Association, according to guidance given at seminars and on the "lawyer ethics hotline" by its Professional Responsibility Counsel, Mr. Chris Sutton. The WSBA's Informal Ethics Opinion No. 1072 (1987) states: "The Committee considered your inquiry concerning the sharing of fees with lawyers who refer cases to other lawyers, but who otherwise do not participate in the case. The Committee noted that RPC 1.5(e)(2) does permit the division of fees between lawyers based upon grounds other than the proportion of services provided by each lawyer. The first requirement is that if such a fee splitting were to be undertaken, there be a written agreement with the client. Secondly, each lawyer must assume joint responsibility for the representation. Thirdly, the total fee must be reasonable. The Committee noted that this would require that the fee paid by the client be no greater than had there been only the one lawyer involved." |