Ethics Opinions
Iowa Supreme Court Board of Professional Ethics and Conduct
Date of Opinion:
03/07/2002
Opinion Number:
01-08
Title:
SOLICITATION – IOWA FAMILY POLICY CENTER
Opinion:
As counsel for a non-profit corporation, the goal of which is to strengthen Iowa’s families through research, education and advocacy, you have asked whether the organization’s “legal arm,” the Iowa Liberty and Justice Center, may solicit prospective clients regarding participation in pertinent legal matters. For example, you mention a newspaper advertisement searching for parents, whose children have been prohibited from exercising their right to free exercise of religion in a public forum, who desire to take legal action redressing such prohibitions.
In Formal Opinion 83-10, this Board, citing
N.A.A.C.P. v. Button
, 371 U.S. 415,
Railroad Trainmen v. Virginia Bar
, 377 U.S. 1, and
In re Primus
, 436 U.S. 412, held that the Iowa Civil Liberties Union was entitled to engage in similar solicitation because it is a nonprofit organization which pursues litigation as a vehicle for effective political expression. Your organization has the same rights.
Although a law firm would not be entitled to use a trade name such as the Iowa Liberty and Justice Center under DR 2-102(B), that rule is inapplicable here because your attorneys are not “in private practice” when working for the Center. See Formal Opinion 96-21. The Center’s letterhead, however, should be modified to omit the private practice address of its Chief Counsel, so that the Center will not be viewed as a “feeder” for that private practice.