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Editor: Ben W. Glass
Profession: Attorney at Law

Category: Ethics and Regulation

Thanks to Jonathan Stein for alerting me to this interesting ethics case from California.

An attorney bought a marketing program from U.S. Tax Marketing Corp. . The marketing program teaches lawyers how to defend people from IRS proceedings, etc. (I've actually reviewed this entire program and it is good...the program was not the problem here.)

As part of an add-on, apparently you can buy a "done for you service" whereby the vendor will use your letterhead and mail letters to a list of people known to be in trouble with the IRS.

The problem, and the reason the lawyer was suspended for 30 days, was that the letter being sent made gross misrepresentations about the experience of the lawyer in doing tax lien defense. She had NO experience in these cases.

Now, there is nothing wrong with taking on a new practice area and there is nothing wrong with doing a case and its your FIRST case (we've ALL done that!). The problem that the California State Bar had was in the misrepresentation of expertise.