New York State Bar Association
Real Property Law Section
Committee on Professionalism
Committee Roster
The
Professionalism Committee’s goal –
not surprisingly – is to encourage professionalism and ethical conduct. The Committee seeks to achieve that goal by,
among other things, disseminating information with respect to ethics and
professionalism (including by arranging for the circulation of opinions of
interest and providing summaries of selected opinions); monitoring the case
law, ethics opinions and changes in rules with respect to ethics and
professionalism; fostering a dialogue between attorneys, the bench, and
regulators with respect to ethics and professionalism; and presenting (or
assisting other Committees in presenting) continuing legal education programs
with respect to ethics and professionalism.
Over
the past few years the Committee has circulated summaries of ethics opinions
involving the following issues: whether
a lawyer working from home must display his or her address on his/her website,
whether “introducing” clients and/or non-clients is a “legal” service (which
trips all the usual ethics considerations, including conflict of interest), and
whether a lawyer may accept a fee from a broker for referring a client to the
broker (even if the fee is credited against the client’s attorneys’ fees).
Are
you moral? Are you ethical? Are they the same? Join this Committee to keep up with the most
recent ethics opinions, and find out.
The Committee is not a lot of work – it holds occasional telephone
conferences to discuss opinions – and welcomes all who wish to participate.
Committee membership is open to members of the Real Property Law Section.
July 2016