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Multi-Disciplinary Professional Practices: A Consumer Welfare Perspective, Michael Trebilcock, Lila Csorgo

Dalhousie Law Journal

Multi-disciplinary professional practices (MDPs) involving lawyers, accountants and otherprofessionals, have been the subject of considerable industrystudyand controversy in Canada and abroad. In this article, the authors evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of MDPs strictly from a consumer welfare perspective. They argue that, although MDP critics' concerns surrounding such issues as solicitor-client privilege, independence, conflicts of interest, and unauthorized practice are valid, they are often overstated and are, in many cases, encountered even today by professionals outside the MDP context. The advantages to consumers of permitting the evolution of such practices would, in any event, significantly outweigh such disadvantages. The authors'analysis …