Ethical Problems in Connection with The Delivery of Legal Services

When the Code of Professional Responsibility was presented to the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association at its 1969 annual meeting by the Special Committee on the Evaluation of Ethical Standards, the only exception taken to any of its provisions was to that dealing with cooperation by a lawyer with an organization engaged in facilitating the delivery of legal services to the public. The Code, as drafted by the Committee, and as ultimately adopted at that time by the House of Delegates, provides that a lawyer shall not knowingly assist a person or organization that recommends, furnishes or pays for legal services to promote the use of his services or those of his partners or associates. To this, certain exceptions are made: e.g., a lawyer may cooperate in a dignified manner with legal service activities of a legal aid office, a military legal assistance office, a lawyer referral service, or a bar association representative of the general bar of the geographical area. A fifth exception, however, is the one which precipitated the controversy