Could a Nebraska lawyer participate in a newspaper interview with photographs?

Plain-English summary

The committee reconsidered Nebraska Opinion 74-11 after the Nebraska Supreme Court amended the former advertising rules in November 1977.

It distinguished direct commercial advertising, intended to help prospective clients choose counsel, from a newspaper interview of general public interest. A requested news interview could include information allowed by the relevant former DR 2-101(B) guidelines when that information was genuinely newsworthy.

The article could not use news coverage to insert commercial-advertising details such as fees, hourly rates, office hours, or credit-card acceptance. The information also had to avoid false, fraudulent, misleading, deceptive, self-laudatory, or unfair statements or claims.

The lawyer could not compensate or give the reporter anything of value in anticipation of or return for professional publicity. The committee rescinded Opinion 74-11 because its advertising prohibitions no longer applied after the amendments.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1978, before Nebraska's adoption of the 2005 Rules of Professional Conduct. Subsequent advertising, publicity, media-contact, compensation, and misleading-communication rules or later opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current guidance.

Common questions

Q: Could the interview include a photograph of the lawyer?

A: Yes, subject to the opinion's other limits.

Q: Could a news article include the lawyer's fees or office hours?

A: No. The committee treated those as direct commercial-advertising details that should not be inserted under the guise of newsworthiness.

Q: Could the lawyer pay the reporter for the publicity?

A: No. The opinion prohibited compensation or anything of value in anticipation of or return for professional publicity in a news item.

Q: What happened to Opinion 74-11?

A: The committee rescinded it because its pre-amendment advertising prohibitions were no longer applicable.

Background and rules framework

Former DR 2-101(A) and (B) governed lawyer publicity and permitted factual advertising in defined media. DR 2-101(H) addressed compensation or things of value given for professional publicity.

Citations and references

Former Nebraska Code of Professional Responsibility:

• DR 2-101(A), (B), and (H)

Other opinions cited:

• Nebraska Ethics Advisory Opinion 74-11, rescinded by Opinion 78-1

See also

• Nebraska Ethics Op. 80-2: CLE newspaper publicity
• Nebraska Ethics Op. 81-9: Yellow Pages practice-area listings
• Nebraska Ethics Op. 89-7: Prewritten lawyer newsletters

Source

• Landing page: Nebraska lawyer ethics opinions archive
• Original PDF: Nebraska Ethics Advisory Opinion 78-1

Original opinion text

Reproduced from the official source for research purposes. The linked source is authoritative.

Nebraska Ethics Advisory Opinion for Lawyers No. 78-1

IT IS PROPER FOR AN ATTORNEY TO PARTICIPATE IN AN INTERVIEW AT THE REQUEST OF A REPORTER FROM A LOCAL NEWSPAPER, WITH OR WITHOUT PHOTOGRAPHS, SO LONG AS THE NEWS ARTICLE IS LIMITED TO THE INFORMATION PERMITTED BY THOSE OF THE 25 GUIDELINES LISTED UNDER DR2-101(B) WHICH ARE DEEMED NEWSWORTHY AS DISTINGUISHED FROM INFORMATION DEEMED TO CONSTITUTE COMMERCIAL ADVERTISING, AND PROVIDED DR2-101(A) AND (H) ARE COMPLIED WITH.

OPINION NO. 74-11 IS HEREBY RESCINDED.

DISCUSSION
Opinion No. 74-11 was based upon the prohibitions against lawyer advertising which were embodied in DR2- 101 (A) and (B) as in effect prior to the Amendments to the Code adopted by the Nebraska Supreme Court in November 1977.

Inasmuch as such Amendments permit advertising by lawyers within certain guidelines, the prohibitions against advertising contained in Opinion No. 74-11 are no longer applicable.

DR2-101 (A) and (B) as presently in effect permit a lawyer to publish or broadcast certain factual information in defined media. This Committee feels there is a distinction between permitted commercial advertising on the one hand, and participation in an interview with a newspaper which is of general news interest, on the other. The purpose of the former is to aid prospective clients in the intelligent selection of an attorney; the purpose of the latter is the dissemination of news which is of interest to the general public. The news article, therefore, should not contain information concerning fees and hourly rates, office hours, or whether credit cards are accepted, for example, as that is the type of factual data which is appropriate to direct commercial advertising, and should not be permitted to be indirectly slipped into the news article under the guise of being generally newsworthy.

Further, the constraints of DR2-101 (A) and (H) would still apply. The information given to the reporter should not contain any false, fraudulent, misleading, deceptive, self-laudatory or unfair statement or claim. The attorney should not compensate or give anything of value to the reporter in anticipation of or in return for professional publicity in a news item.

Nebraska Ethics Advisory Opinion for Lawyers No. 78-1