Can a law firm list an 'Insurance Adjustment Department' and the names of non-lawyer adjusters on its letterhead?

Plain-English summary

A firm of bar members proposed to establish an insurance adjusting department and to add to its letterhead the words "Insurance Adjustment Department," along with the name of the member in charge and possibly the names of one or more adjusters. It asked the Board's reaction.

The Board answered through ABA Committee on Professional Ethics and Grievances Opinion 57, which held that the adjustment of insurance claims by a lawyer is professional employment engaging his professional skill and responsibility. On that footing the Board saw no objection to the notation on the letterhead with the name of a member of the bar used in connection with it, treating it as merely a statement of a special branch of the profession practiced, citing Rule 45. Assuming the "one or more adjusters" were not members of the bar, however, the use of their names on the letterhead was objectionable. The Board quoted ABA Opinion 54: using the name of a layman on a lawyer's stationery, representing him as conducting or managing a department of the lawyer's professional activities, is improper because it too readily lends itself to the solicitation of employment or to advertising by the layman so employed.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1936, decades before Oklahoma replaced its original Rules of Professional Conduct (patterned on the ABA Canons of Professional Ethics) with the Oklahoma Rules of Professional Conduct (adopted 1988) and the later Ethics 2000 revisions. The limits on letterhead content survive in modern form in the rules on firm names and letterheads and on lawyer advertising, but the rule text has changed, and constitutional decisions on lawyer advertising beginning with Bates v. State Bar of Arizona (1977) have narrowed the older restrictions. Subsequent rule amendments and later opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current guidance. Verify against current rules before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or requirement mentioned here.

Common questions

Q: Can a law firm advertise an insurance-adjustment department on its letterhead?

A: The opinion saw no objection to noting an "Insurance Adjustment Department" on the letterhead with the name of a member of the bar, because claim adjustment by a lawyer is professional employment and the notation is a statement of a special branch of the profession practiced (Rule 45).

Q: Can the firm list the names of its non-lawyer adjusters on the letterhead?

A: No. The opinion held that, assuming the adjusters are not members of the bar, using their names on the letterhead is objectionable because it readily lends itself to solicitation of employment or advertising by the layman.

Background and rules framework

The opinion applied Rule 45 of the canon-era Oklahoma Rules of Professional Conduct, governing the content of professional letterheads and cards, and adopted the reasoning of ABA Committee on Professional Ethics and Grievances Opinions 57 (claim adjustment as professional employment) and 54 (a layman's name on a lawyer's stationery as improper). It predates the Model Rules and made no Model Rule citation.

Citations and references

Rules of Professional Conduct:

• Rule 45 (1929 Oklahoma Rules of Professional Conduct): governs the content of a lawyer's letterhead and professional cards.

Other opinions cited:

• ABA Committee on Professional Ethics and Grievances Op. 57: the adjustment of insurance claims by a lawyer is professional employment.
• ABA Committee on Professional Ethics and Grievances Op. 54: the use of a layman's name on a lawyer's stationery, representing him as managing a department of the lawyer's practice, is improper.

See also

• Okla. Bar Ethics Op. 98: A card in an insurance trade magazine
• Okla. Bar Ethics Op. 119: Insurance-adjustment service cards to companies
• Okla. Bar Ethics Op. 21: Firm name holding out a salaried lawyer as a partner

Source

• Landing page: https://www.okbar.org/ethics/ethics-opinion-no-118/

Original opinion text

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

Adopted September 25, 1936

The Board is in receipt of the following communication from a firm composed of members of the Bar.

"We are establishing an insurance adjusting department in our office to handle insurance adjustments of all kinds and we plan to add to our letterhead to the left "Insurance Adjustment Department," together with the writer's name who will be in charge of the department, and we may want to add the name of one or more adjusters as being in the adjustment department …We wish you would let us have your reaction to this at your earliest convenience."

In response:

As said by the A. B. A. Committee on Professional Ethics and Grievances in its opinion No. 57:

"The adjustment of insurance claims by a lawyer is professional employment. In performing such a service his professional skill and responsibility are engaged."

Therefore, no objection can be seen to the notation on the letterhead with the name of a member of the bar used in connection therewith. That amounts merely to a statement of a special branch of the profession practiced. (Rule 45.)

Assuming that the "one or more adjusters" are not members of the bar, the use of their names on the letterhead is objectionable. As said in Opinion 54 of the A. B. A. Committee on Professional Ethics and Grievances:

"The use of the name of a layman on the stationery of a lawyer, representing the former as conducting or managing a department of a lawyer's professional activities, is improper because it too readily lends itself to the solicitation of employment or the use of it for advertising purposes by the layman so employed."