Model Rule 7.3: Solicitation of Clients

When it applies

This comes up when a lawyer targets a specific individual known to need legal services (e.g., after an accident) and reaches out live or through immediate real-time interaction to drum up business; the MPRE tests whether students can distinguish banned "live person-to-person" solicitation from permitted written or recorded solicitation.

What the rule requires

• A lawyer shall not solicit professional employment by live person-to-person contact when a significant motive is the lawyer's pecuniary gain. This does not apply if the person contacted is a lawyer, has a family, close personal, or prior business or professional relationship with the lawyer or law firm, or routinely uses for business purposes the type of legal services the lawyer offers.
• Live person-to-person contact means in-person or face-to-face contact, live telephone calls, and other real-time visual or auditory person-to-person communication, where the person faces a direct personal encounter without time for reflection. It does not include chat rooms, text messages, or other written communications that recipients can easily disregard, nor ordinary letters, emails, or recorded messages.
• The live-contact ban applies to both individuals and organizations. However, it does not apply to a person or entity that routinely uses for business purposes the type of legal services offered; the overreaching concerns are strongest with laypersons.
• Written, recorded, or electronic (non-real-time) communications soliciting business are governed by the requirements of Rule 7.2, including that they must not be false or misleading under Rule 7.1 and must not involve improper payment for referrals.
• A lawyer shall not solicit professional employment through any form of contact from someone who has made known a desire not to be solicited by the lawyer.
• A lawyer shall not solicit professional employment when the solicitation involves coercion, duress, or harassment, even if the communication is not live.

Exceptions

• Contact with another lawyer is permitted regardless of pecuniary motive.
• Contact with someone who has a family, close personal, or prior business or professional relationship with the lawyer or law firm is permitted.
• A lawyer may participate in a prepaid or group legal service plan that uses live person-to-person contact to enroll members or sell subscriptions. This applies only if the plan is operated by an organization not owned or directed by the lawyer, and only if the people contacted are not known to need legal services in a particular matter covered by the plan.
• Live contact with a person or entity that routinely uses, for business purposes, the type of legal services the lawyer offers is expressly permitted by the rule.

How the MPRE tests Model Rule 7.3

• Students often forget that written letters and emails sent to a specific person after an accident are NOT banned under 7.3 (they are permitted subject to 7.1/7.2), only live real-time contact is banned.
• Confusing 'solicitation' under 7.3 with general 'advertising' under 7.2. Rule 7.3 bans only live person-to-person solicitation for pecuniary gain. However, targeted written or electronic solicitations are still 'solicitations' under 7.3, so they are barred if the recipient has said they do not want to be solicited or if they involve coercion, duress, or harassment. Such communications are otherwise governed by 7.1/7.2.
• Missing that the live-contact prohibition only applies when a significant motive is pecuniary gain, so pro bono or public interest outreach is not covered by that ban. Even so, the bans on soliciting someone who has declined solicitation, or soliciting through coercion, duress, or harassment, still apply.
• Overlooking the family/close personal/prior business or professional relationship exception, or the routine business-user exception, and wrongly concluding all direct contact is banned.