Abstract
Last year, a New York federal district court dismissed a lawsuit by Jacoby & Meyers LLP attacking a New York law that prevents non-lawyers from owning an equity interest in law firms. On November 21, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit resuscitated the lawsuit, remanding the case to the district court and granting Jacoby & Meyers LLP leave to amend its complaint. Non-lawyers owning an equity interest in law firms is not a new idea, as countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom already allow it, and the United States should follow their example to a limited extent. Despite the ethical issues present with non-lawyer equity ownership in law firms, this Comment proposes that the ABA, as well as subsequent state law, create a system that allows law firms to get funding from investors without breaching legal ethics rules.
Recommended Citation
Brett Novick,
Comment,
Providing Capital for Law Firms in a Credit Crisis: Non-Lawyer Equity Ownership,
46
U. Mich. J. L. Reform Caveat
100
(2012).
Available at:
https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjlr_caveat/vol46/iss1/20
Citation Note
This Comment was originally cited as Volume 2 of the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Online. Volumes 1, 2, and 3 of MJLR Online have been renumbered 45, 46, and 47 respectively. These updated Volume numbers correspond to their companion print Volumes. Additionally, the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Online was renamed Caveat in 2015.