Formal Opinion 87
Letterhead Designating Attorney as City Attorney
(1960)

Your letter of July 27, 1960, presents a copy of a letterhead used by a firm of two attorneys; after the name of one of the attorneys there appears on the letterhead the words "City Attorney." The other attorney’s name appears without any designation after it.

You inquire whether your letterhead violates the canons of professional ethics. Canon 27 provides:

"It is unprofessional to solicit professional employment by circulars, advertisements, through touters or by personal communications or interviews not warranted by personal relations. Indirect advertisements for professional employment such as furnishing or inspiring newspaper comments, or procuring his photograph to be published in connection with causes in which the lawyer has been or is engaged or concerning the manner of his conduct, the magnitude of the interest involved, the importance of the lawyer’s position, and all other like self-laudation, offend the traditions and lower the tone of our profession and are reprehensible; but the customary use of simple professional cards is not improper."

In the opinion of the Legal Ethics Committee of the American Bar Association No. 285, the question presented was the propriety of a manufacturer’s association specifying the name of its general counsel on bulletins and letterheads. In condemning this practice, the American Bar Committee said:

"The purpose of the provisions of Canon 27 condemning advertising is emphatically to discourage all forms of self-laudation by lawyers, not only direct, but also indirect. The latter include any suggestions or encouragement of commendatory statements by others designed to call attention to the lawyer for the purpose of promoting his professional employment. In every case, of course, the situation must be wholly free from any actual or apparent suggestion or connivance on the part of the lawyers in their own interest."

In this case, the lawyers were not advertising their names as counsel for the manufacturer’s association, but the company itself was using their names on its bulletins and letterheads, and the committee held it was the duty of the lawyers to request the manufacturer’s association to remove their names from its bulletins and letterheads.

The American Bar Ethics Committee has held it improper for an attorney who is also a doctor to state on his letterhead that he is both a doctor and lawyer or that he specializes in medical legal law. (ABA Opinions 159 and 183.)

An amendment to Canon 27 in 1951 authorizes the use of the term "Patent Attorney," "Patent Lawyer," "Trade Mark Attorney" or "Trade Mark Lawyer" on the letterhead and shingle of an attorney who is admitted and authorized to practice law before the patent office. We know of no other exceptions to the rule against advertising applicable to letterheads and professional cards. It will be noted that Canon 27 specifically provides that a lawyer shall not indirectly encourage publicity of "the importance of the lawyer’s position, and all other self-laudation."

The apparent purpose of using the term "City Attorney" after the name of one of the members of the firm is to call the attention of those persons receiving such letters to the fact that one of the members holds the public position of City Attorney. It is the opinion of the Committee that it is improper and in violation of the letter and spirit of Canon 27 for a city attorney to so designate himself as such upon letterheads used by him or the firm of which he is a member for correspondence purposes in the general practice of law.

[The Rules of Professional Conduct Committee is of the opinion that the use of such letterhead is not improper as an advertisement, but may be misleading and is therefore prohibited by RPC 7.1]