Ethics In Your Office Space

Many lawyers have found advantages to sharing office space with others, even those not engaged in the business of law. Here at Solutions, we have everyone from attorneys to marketing companies to architects, all under one roof. This saves everyone from the expenses of overhead costs that come with having your own office space such as administrative staff, furniture and copy machines.

Lawyers do however need to consider their office space ethics when it comes to choosing who to share their office space with. A lawyer must protect the independence of their clients and their practice. Each firm must have separate telephone lines and must be answered differently per that law firms name. Here at Solutions, we have your own phone line included when you rent office space with us. Lawyers are not ethically prohibited from sharing office space with a non law business, however confidentiality issues can be troublesome in this case. Care must be given to ensure that the law business is in no way affiliated with the other businesses in their shared office space. Our office spaces allow you to have plenty of room in your own locked space to keep all files locked and confidential. Each tenant gets their own key for their individual office as well as desk keys to ensure your documents are kept confidential.

The American Bar states that ‘confidential files of one lawyer may not be accessible by other office sharers and must be securely stored to maintain all confidences’.

Rule 7.5 specifically forbids lawyers who share office facilities but who are not in fact associated with each other in a law firm from using a name as, “Smith and Jones”, since that denomination suggests they are practicing together in a firm.”

We have a directory which you can choose to add your firms name to. The names are always separated and each have a separate suite number with them, to show they are in fact different lawyers and companies. When it comes to shared office staff such as the receptionist, the ethics do allow this. As long as that person does not have access to confidential files, information and ‘does not foster the perception that lawyers are operating as a firm’. Solutions provides professional staff and receptionist who will always keep your companies best interest in mind when it comes to dealing with your business needs.

According to the ethics as long as the businesses are clearly separated and not seen to be working as a firm and client confidences are not compromised, then separate lawyers and non law businesses can work together in a shared office space just fine, all while helping everyone save money and gain professional resources.