Ethical marketing considerations for a new geographical location of your offices
When opening or expanding your law practice in another jurisdiction, there are several things to consider. A consideration that can be easily overlooked is making sure your law firm is conforming to the ethical advertising laws of the state you are targeting. Even if the firm is not intending to market in the new geographical area, the mere mention of the fact that the law firm practices in that area on their website or other mediums may require the firm to abide by ethical ad rules.
Depending on the state, some bar associations require some or all advertisements by a law firm to be submitted to them before the ad can be displayed to the public.
An example of a state that requires submission of ad samples for approval is Florida. In our home state of Minnesota, this approval process is not required. In Florida, most law firm advertisements are required to be filed for review at least 20 days before it can be posted as an advertisement for the general public.
Florida has a list of rules that must be followed for each and every advertisement:
- The advertisement must include:
- The name of a lawyer or a law firm.
- The name of at least one legitimate office location by the name of its city or county.
- The advertisement must be mailed to the Florida Bar Ethics and Advertising Department.
The above information meets the bare minimum requirements, however there may be additional requirements based on the content you include in your advertisement.
- In the case of a digital advertisement, the required contents to be sent are:
- A printed copy of the advertisement that includes all text used.
- A complete English translation, in case any part of the advertisement is not in English.
- A statement explaining in which media sources the advertisement will appear, the expected frequency of use of the advertisement, and the expected time period during which the advertisement will be used.
- The name of at least one lawyer who is responsible for the advertisement’s content.
- The filing fee. This fee is $150 for timely filed advertisements and $250 for advertisements that are not timely filed. The fee must be submitted for each advertisement, meaning that if there are multiple advertisements, you would need to pay $150 multiplied by the number of advertisements you are sending. Unless each advertisement is identical, the fee must be paid for each advertisement that is being submitted.
Additionally:
- Advertisements cannot be filed by fax or email – they must be mailed to the office with a check for the designated amount.
- The review process can take up to 15 days. These 15 days are the amount of time that the bar staff has to complete a filing and decide whether or not an advertisement follows the regulations. However, the process usually does not take the full 15 days, and it is handled in a timely manner when possible. If a filing is incomplete, the bar staff also has 15 days to inform you of that and ask for the missing information or fee.
- Any revisions to your advertisement do not require an additional fee if they were made to ensure state bar compliance. However, edits made for any other reason will be considered a new advertisement, including changes to words, illustrations, pictures, type, layout, or color scheme. This will require another filing fee of the same amount.
- Advertisements that will only be seen by other lawyers, current and former clients, or prospective clients who have requested information do not need to be filed. Advertisements created to gain new clients must be sent in to be reviewed.
Other advertising considerations include but are not limited to: the requirements of a physical office, an attorney licensed in that state, state bar registrations and taxing authority registrations.
Educate yourself or defer to an ethics attorney on the advertising regulations in your state and any new geological locations you are considering. Knowing the rules before submitting an advertisement will save you time, effort, and money. With your state’s rules in mind, your advertisements can be posted in no time, winning you more clients.