伦理意见233

向非澳门赌场官网顾问支付“成功费”

澳门赌场官网事务所可以同意委托人的意见, 取决于某一特定事件的结果, a "success fee" will be paid to both the law firm and a consulting firm of nonlawyer experts retained by the law firm to assist it in connection with the matter. The fact that the portion of the "success fee" payable to the nonlawyer consultants flows from the client 通过澳门赌场官网事务所 does not result in a "sharing" by the law firm of legal fees with a nonlawyer proscribed by 规则5.4.

适用的规则

• 规则5.4(澳门赌场官网的职业独立性)

调查

初学的, 哥伦比亚特区的一家澳门赌场官网事务所, 在诉讼中是否发展了代表客户的业务, 国际建设工程合同及其他纠纷的仲裁、调解. 在这方面, the law firm has built a close relationship with a consulting firm of professional engineers and other nonlawyer specialists who provide expert advice and opinions relating to analysis of construction delays, 损失的计算, 等.

而咨询公司有时直接受雇于澳门赌场官网事务所的客户, 更常见的安排是澳门赌场官网事务所聘请咨询公司, 按小时收费来补偿. 律所在这方面为客户所做的工作通常是按小时收费的, 但如果结果成功，会给澳门赌场官网事务所一笔“成功酬金”.

The law firm wants to enter into a contractual arrangement with the consulting company pursuant to which the consulting company not only would be compensated by the law firm on an hourly basis, 但澳门赌场官网事务所也会从客户那里就建设项目收取任何“成功费”. The "success fees" would be shared with the consulting company in any given case only with the prior knowledge and consent of the law firm's client.

讨论

The questions posed are (1) whether the law firm's proposed fee arrangement with its clients and the consulting firm constitute a sharing of legal fees by the law firm and the nonlawyer consultants that is proscribed by 规则5.4(a); and (2) if so, whether the fee arrangement is removed from that general proscription if the consulting firm agrees to abide by the conditions set forth 在规则5中.4(b)(1)-(4).

委员会没有讨论第二个问题，因为我们的结论是, 只要客户被充分告知并事先同意某一特定事项的费用协议, 客户向澳门赌场官网事务所支付的成功费, 通过澳门赌场官网事务所, 支付给咨询公司的费用并不构成规则5所禁止的法律费用分摊.4(a).

长期以来，禁止与非澳门赌场官网人士分担费用和合作一直是法律道德规范的一个特征. 他们的动机是多方面的, 主要是，非澳门赌场官网可以通过这种安排从事未经授权的法律业务, 客户的信心可能会受到损害, 非澳门赌场官网可能会控制澳门赌场官网的活动，干扰澳门赌场官网独立的职业判断. 意见没有. 146.

美国澳门赌场官网协会的库塔克委员会, 是谁起草了《美国澳门赌场官网协会职业行为示范规则》, proposed a dramatically different approach that would have allowed a wide range of business associations between lawyers and nonlawyers. The Kutak Commission thus recognized the important and integral role that a variety of types of nonlawyers—from paralegals to economists, 社会工作者和会计在现代法律实践中发挥了作用. 比较意见No. 93, 1980年，本委员会同样承认非澳门赌场官网在法律实践中的作用日益增加. 然而，美国澳门赌场官网协会的众议院拒绝了库塔克委员会的建议，并在规则5中通过.《澳门赌场官网》第4条, general bans on sharing of legal fees with nonlawyers and on partnerships with nonlawyers paralleling those contained in Disciplinary 规则 3-102 and 3-103 of the old ABA Model Code of Professional Responsibility.

哥伦比亚特区采用的职业行为准则, 1月1日生效, 1991, 包含规则5的一个版本.4,, 比如库塔克委员会的提议, 反映了在法律实践中对费用分摊和非澳门赌场官网协会的更自由的态度. 规则5.4(a), 普遍禁止分摊费用, contains not only the traditional exceptions for payments to a deceased lawyer's estate and inclusion of nonlawyer employees in a retirement plan based on profit-sharing, 但也, 在规则5中.4(a)(4)和5.4(b), 允许在非澳门赌场官网参与的合伙企业或其他组织中分摊费用的例外情况, 但须遵守某些保障措施.¹

我们认为，民主党所体现的更为自由的做法.C. 规则, together with a recognition of the vital role that nonlawyer experts from many disciplines play today in assisting lawyers in providing legal services to their clients, 建议反对广泛解读规则5.在这种情况下，禁止与非澳门赌场官网分享费用. 我们还认为，必须根据若干主张来看待目前的调查, 在我们看来, 是无可争辩的. 第一个, nothing in the 职业行为准则 would prohibit a direct arrangement between the law firm's client and the consulting firm for the payment of a "success fee" to the consulting firm. 第二个, it is commonplace for lawyers to retain and pay outside consultants directly and to pass on their charges as an expense in billing their clients; no-one suggests that this constitutes the "sharing" by the lawyer of a fee with the nonlawyer consultant. 第三，对规则3的评论8.4, 这反映了哥伦比亚特区传统做法的另一种自由化, 允许向专家证人支付或有费用，只要不以追回款项的百分比为依据.

考虑到这些因素, 委员会的结论是, 只要客户被充分告知并同意这种安排, a success fee of the kind contemplated by the inquiring firm does not constitute a sharing of legal fees with nonlawyers proscribed by 规则5.4.² The client would be agreeing at the outset of a matter that a success fee will be paid to both the law firm and the consulting firm. 这与客户向澳门赌场官网支付费用的情况不同, 不知道澳门赌场官网有义务与非澳门赌场官网分担费用.

The fact that the client's payment of the consulting firm's portion of the success fee flows 通过澳门赌场官网事务所 does not transform the payment into a legal fee being "shared" by the consulting firm any more than does the more typical arrangement in which a client reimburses a law firm for consulting fees paid by the law firm to a consultant. 在物质, the transaction that results in a payment to the nonlawyer consulting firm is between the client and the consulting firm; the fact that the money passes through the hands of the law firm is a formality of no consequence for purposes of 规则5.4.

因为我们对这个问题的处理, we have no occasion to decide whether the inquiring law firm's contractual arrangement with the consulting firm could qualify as a "partnership or other form of organization" within the meaning of 规则5.4(a)(4)和5.4(b).

调查没有. 92-9-30
通过:1993年1月26日

1. 规则5.第4条有关部分规定:
(a)澳门赌场官网或澳门赌场官网事务所不得与非澳门赌场官网分担法律费用，除非:
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(4)在符合第(b)款要求的合伙企业或其他形式的组织中，允许分摊费用.
(b) A lawyer may practice law in a partnership or other form of organization in which a financial interest is held or managerial authority is exercised by an individual nonlawyer who performs professional services which assist the organization in providing legal services to clients, but only if: (1) the partnership or organization has as its sole purpose providing legal services to clients; (2) all persons having such managerial authority or holding a financial interest undertake to abide by these rules of professional conduct; (3) the lawyers who have a financial interest or managerial authority in the partnership or organization undertake to be responsible for the nonlawyer participants to the same extent as if onlawyer participants were lawyers under 规则5.1; (4) the foregoing conditions are set forth in writing.
2. 如果咨询公司的一名成员将作为专家证人作证, 询问的澳门赌场官网事务所应该记住，当D.C. 规则允许根据诉讼结果向专家证人支付费用, 此类费用不得按案件中所获赔偿的百分比计算. 规则3.4、评论[8].