Law Commons^™

Why Lawyers Should Be Allowed To Advertise: A Market Analysis Of Legal Services, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

In Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, a 1977 decision, the United States Supreme Court overturned the American Bar Association's (ABA) sixty-nine-year-old prohibition of advertising by lawyers. The Bates holding invalidated comprehensive bans on lawyer advertising but left unsettled the scope of permissible regulation. While the Bates Court found attorneys' price advertising to be protected speech under the first amendment, it also stated that false and misleading advertising could be prohibited. The majority expressly declined to consider the problems of advertising claims relating to the quality of legal services.

The organized bar's reaction to Bates has been hesitant and inconsistent. …

Why Lawyers Should Be Allowed To Advertise: A Market Analysis Of Legal Services , Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr., Russell G. Pearce, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Faculty Scholarship

Last August, the American Bar Association adopted the Model Rules of Professional Conduct which significantly altered the ABA' position on lawyer advertising. It is still unclear how the states will respond to the ABA's new position, and the debate about the propriety of lawyer advertising continue. In the authors' view, both sides of the debate have overlooked an important point: For purposes of analyzing the advertising problem, legal services are of two types, and the effect of advertising on the legal services market will vary with the type of service involved."Individualized" services involve legal matters that pose a significant risk …