Ohio Ethics Opinion: Attorneys as "experts"

The Sept. 13th. issue of BNA’s U.S. Law Week, has an article relating that “Ohio disciplinary rule against claiming special competence or experience makes it improper for lawyers to participate in a television station’s ‘Ask the Expert’ program,” citing the Supreme Court’s ethics board in an Aug. 8th. opinion.

The problem was with the program’s inclusion of the term “expert” in its title. The ethics board advised that that poses the possibility of problems under DR 2-105(A)(6) of the Code of Professional Responsibility, which, with some exception, prohibits attorneys to claim or imply special competence or experience. Gov.Bar R. XIV, on “attorney specializations,” is one of those exceptions. Lawyers can conduct seminars and participate in radio talk shows, but the board cautioned about things like answering anonymous e-mail requests with generalized responses as they would be otherwise unable to rule out possibilities such as creating conflicts of interest with current or former clients.

The article, in referencing the Aug 8th. ethics opinion, noted that Op.94-13 and Op.99-9 could be referred to as “guidelines for attorneys who answer questions from the public on the radio and by e-mail.”

The Supreme Court on its website provides a wealth of related information including a link to “attorney specialization” and a “nutshell” overview.