• The New York Times, Friday, March 2, 2007 12 PM

New ad rules that restrict attorney advertising have caused problems for some big corporate law firms with offices in New York state. The new regs, which took effect Feb. 1, come from a committee of judges charged with writing the ethical rules governing the state's lawyers. Amid complaints about poor taste in billboard ads by some upstate law firms, the panel moved to rein in the practice.

Now, advertising is defined as "any public or private communication made on behalf of a lawyer or law firm about that law firm's services, the primary purpose of which is for the retention of the lawyer and the law firm." But many firms have responded by interpreting them to apply to client memos on legal developments, a practice that most firms consider part service and part marketing. Email messages have to have a note in the subject line stating that it is "attorney advertising" and that means it can get dumped without a glance.

"You risk getting shunted off to the spam filter or to the garbage," says Allan Ripp, a New York publicist who represents many large law firms. And if the email makes it past the spam filter, "You might as well have a sign that says 'ignore this,' " he adds.

Read the whole story at The New York Times »