You can't invest in law firms... yet
It is currently against the law to invest in law firms, but it's not out of the question. Law firms in the UK may go public in 2011.
Pedestrian pass the offices of Goldman Sachs in London. Should law firms be allowed to go public like other firms? It is currently illegal, but may be coming in the future.
Toby Melville/Reuters
After reading in the New York Times about how well law firms are , the thought of taking the plunge on some law firm shares came to mind.
But there don鈥檛 appear to be any publicly-traded law firms because
It鈥檚 against the rules, for one. Ethical rules i.e., the American Bar Association Model Rule 5.4 prohibit firms from selling equity shares in law firms to non-lawyers. Specifically, it says that a lawyer shall not share legal fees with a non-lawyer. The problem legal ethics types wrestle with is that as a public company, a law firm would have a potential conflict between its duty of loyalty to its clients and its duty of loyalty to its shareholders. Another reason: Lawyers also vigilantly protect the attorney-client privilege, and many fear that by being a public company, a law firm could risk divulging client confidences.
Ok, but at . 鈥淚 would be surprised if in my lifetime we didn鈥檛 see a law firm go public,鈥� says Greenberg Traurig鈥檚 Leslie Corwin, who advises law firms on business issues. 鈥淎nd I hope I鈥檓 around to do the deal.鈥�
鈥淏ut consider, Goldman Sachs, a ridiculously successful partnership-turned-public company that is very much in the business of servicing clients and protecting their confidences,鈥� wrote Peter Lattman in his 鈥淟aw Blog鈥� on WSJ, dated March 30, 2007.
and, 鈥淸e]ventually, this is a trend that will make its way across the pond to the United States, home of some of the world鈥檚 largest and most successful law firms.鈥�
Down Under, the first publicly-traded law firm of is trading on the Australian Securities Exchange.
------------------------------
海角大神 has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on the link above.