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Opinion 24-02 |
Law Firm Name and Letterhead | Of Counsel Designation
A law firm may use the terms “senior counsel,” “special counsel,” or “counsel,” as well as “of counsel,” to designate lawyers with whom a firm has a close, regular, and personal relationship. Where a lawyer is “senior counsel,” “special counsel,” “counsel,” or “of counsel” to more than one law firm, those law firms will generally be considered as a single firm for purposes of attribution of conflicts of interest and disqualification.
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Opinion 22-04 |
Law Firm Name and Letterhead | Of Counsel Designation
After restructuring as a professional limited liability company, a law firm may continue to use the names of its deceased or retired partners in its name provided that there has been a continuing succession in the firm’s identity. To be “of counsel” to a firm one must have a continuing and regular relationship with the firm.
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Opinion 20-04 |
Law Firm Name and Letterhead | Of Counsel Designation
Lawyers may state or imply that they practice in a partnership only when that is the fact. A law firm's name may not imply a partnership when none exists. A law firm's name must not mislead the public. But for limited exceptions, a law firm's name should not include the name of a non-practicing lawyer. To be of counsel to a firm one must have a continuing and regular relationship with the firm. To practice as a limited liability partnership, the partnership's name must end with one of several designations prescribed by statute.
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Opinion 16-01 |
Law Firm Name and Letterhead | Law Firms | Multijurisdictional Practice
A law firm organized as a professional corporation in a state other than Illinois, and registered as a law firm in its state of incorporation, is required to register as a law firm with the Illinois Supreme Court if one of its shareholders, admitted to the Illinois bar, practices law in Illinois in the name of the professional corporation.
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Opinion 03-03 |
Advertising and Solicitation | Law Firm Name and Letterhead
Resolution of the conflict between Supreme Court Rule 714 and Rule 7.4 favors Rule 714 as the more recent. A lawyer may list the certification "Capital Litigation Trial Bar" on letterhead without the disclaimer that "the Supreme Court of Illinois does not recognize certifications of specialties in the practice of law."
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Opinion 03-02 |
Law Firm Name and Letterhead | Of Counsel Designation
A law firm’s name may not imply partnership where no actual partnership arrangement exists. A law firm’s name may not mislead the public. A law firm’s name may not contain the name of a partner who withdraws from the firm to join another law firm. A law firm’s name may contain the name of a retired partner or one who has an “of counsel” relationship to the firm, provided the firm takes reasonable steps to show that partner’s status.
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Opinion 89-06 |
Law Firm Name and Letterhead
A new firm may state the name of its predecessor firm on its stationery where there is a continuing line of succession. A firm may not claim a prior affiliation with another existing firm from which some partners in the new firm withdrew several years previously.
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Opinion 87-01 |
Law Firm Name and Letterhead | Nonlawyer Assistants
Names of lay employees may be included on firm letterhead provided the letterhead is not misleading.
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Opinion 86-08 |
Law Firm Name and Letterhead | Unauthorized Practice of Law
It is not improper for a lawyer who is retained by a hospital to collect past-due accounts to distribute his blank letterhead to the client-hospital or to a business corporation, retained by the hospital to assist in managing patient accounts receivables, for the purpose of typing a collection letter which the lawyer writes, reviews for accuracy and personally signs.
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Opinion 85-07 |
Law Firm Name and Letterhead | Unauthorized Practice of Law
A law firm may not provide a client its firm letterhead signed in blank for use by the client.
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Opinion 85-02 |
Law Firm Name and Letterhead
Attorneys in a firm may not hold themselves out as practicing independently or in the name of non-existent firm.
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Opinion 865 |
Law Firm Name and Letterhead
A law firm may not show on its letterhead or in an ad in the Yellow Pages that the firm was formerly known by a name which includes the name of a suspended lawyer.
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Opinion 84-10 |
Law Firm Name and Letterhead
It is not permissible for a former associate of a deceased lawyer to use the deceased lawyer's name in forming a new firm.
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Opinion 736 |
Law Firm Name and Letterhead
It is not improper for a lawyer to advertise his availability for employment in a particular field of law even though his name is confusingly similar to another, more experienced lawyer practicing in the same field, so long as the advertisements are not calculated to mislead readers into thinking that the lawyer doing the advertising is the same as the other lawyer.
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Opinion 709 |
Law Firm Name and Letterhead
It is professionally proper for a law firm's name to contain the name of a deceased member of the firm.
