Advisory Opinion: 2110

Year Issued: 2006

RPC(s): RPC 7.2

Subject: the ethical implications of a non-profit, community based organization requesting a donation from attorneys to whom cases were referred and produced financial results

The inquiring law student, soon to be an attorney, asked about the propriety of her nonprofit community-based organization seeking a donation from lawyers to whom she refers cases. The nonprofit organization is CASA Latina. CASA Latina provides a variety of services including a “Wage-Claims Program” which provides screening of potential claims against employers involving wage disputes. The Wage Claims Program initially screens the cases, attempts to work out a voluntary solution with the employer, and currently refers all cases which cannot be resolved to the King County Bar Association Pro-Bono Lawyer Referral Office. In the course of intake in the Wage Claims Program, other legal claims are often discovered which the nonprofit organization refers to individual attorneys after some initial screening.

The inquiring law student manages the Wage Claims Program for CASA Latina. She wishes to know if the CASA Latina can request attorneys who receive referrals to make a donation if the referred case produces an award. The inquiring law student proposes that the requests for donation would merely be a request and that the amount donated would be up to the particular attorney.

In our view, such an arrangement would violate WRPC 7.2(c) on the part of the lawyer paying the referral “donation.”
WRPC 7.2(c) provides:

“A lawyer shall not give anything of value to a person for recommending a lawyer’s services, except that a lawyer may pay the reasonable cost of advertising or written communication permitted by this rule and may pay the usual charges of a not-for-profit lawyer referral service or other legal service organization.” [emphasis added.]

WRPC 7.2(c) requires that CASA Latina qualify as either a legal service organization or as a not-for-profit lawyer referral service in order to engage in the conduct which you propose. It is the Committee’s opinion that CASA Latina cannot qualify as such an organization and that a lawyer working for CASA Latina who requested a donation in return for referral of a case would be in violation of WRPC 7.2, and a lawyer who paid such a fee would similarly be in violation of 7.2.

Please Note ABA Comment No. 6 to WRPC 7.2 in the Model Rules which further defines the requirements for such a legal services organization. In order to proceed as you propose, CASA Latina would need to become a qualified not-for-profit lawyer referral service which is currently not proposed by you. Such a not-for-profit lawyer referral service would have to have complaint procedures and/or malpractice insurance requirements for the referred attorneys and would have to assume a much more direct role in the selection of the lawyers and supervision of them than your proposed course of conduct contemplates.

While CASA Latina may receive unconditional donations from anyone, including lawyers, as can any other not-for-profit organization, those donations can not be linked to a fee, conditioned on any result linked to a referred case, or linked to past or future referral of cases.

Advisory Opinions are provided for the education of the Bar and reflect the opinion of the Committee on Professional Ethics (CPE) or its predecessors. Advisory Opinions are provided pursuant to the authorization granted by the Board of Governors, but are not individually approved by the Board and do not reflect the official position of the Bar association. Laws other than the Washington State Rules of Professional Conduct may apply to the inquiry. The Committee's answer does not include or opine about any other applicable law other than the meaning of the Rules of Professional Conduct.