All opinions of the Committee on Professional Ethics are available online here. To locate a specific opinion or opinions, enter the opinion number or keyword in the appropriate search box below. Licensed attorneys may also call 877-953-5535 for access to opinions
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Canon:
Opinion #: 552
Cite: Professional Ethics Committee For The State Bar of Texas
Date: August 2004
Is it permissible under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct for a lawyer, who has been retained by an insurance company to defend its insured, to (1) furnish to the insurance company's third-party auditor the lawyer's fee statements via electronic mail and (2) pay to the third-party auditor a percentage of the lawyer's fee for auditing such statements?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 551
Cite: The Supreme Court of Texas Professional Ethics Committee
Date: May 2004
Is it permissible under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct to require a lawyer who was employed as a lawyer by a city to comply with a provision of the city’s Ethics Code that prohibits all former city employees from representing unrelated persons before the city for compensation for a period of two years after termination of employment with the city?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 550
Cite: The Supreme Court of Texas Professional Ethics Committee
Date: May 2004
May a lawyer use, in connection with his or her name, the titles “Doctor,” “Dr.,” “Doctor of Jurisprudence,” or “J.D.” in social and professional communications?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 549
Cite: THE PROFESSIONAL ETHICS COMMITTEE FOR THE STATE BAR OF TEXAS
Date: August 2003
May a lawyer representing a workers’ compensation claimant in a third-party action collect a contingent fee from the client based on the gross recovery, part of which is required to be paid to the workers’ compensation carrier?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 548
Cite: THE PROFESSIONAL ETHICS COMMITTEE FOR THE STATE BAR OF TEXAS
Date: January 2003
May a law firm allow a non-profit entity to display the law firm’s name as a sponsor of the entity on the entity’s internet web site?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 547
Cite: THE PROFESSIONAL ETHICS COMMITTEE FOR THE STATE BAR OF TEXAS
Date: January 2003
Is it permissible under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct for a law firm to enter into an arrangement with a group of medical professionals pursuant to which the group would fund the law firm’s television advertising with the expectation but not the obligation) that the law firm would refer clients to the medical group?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 546
Cite: THE PROFESSIONAL ETHICS COMMITTEE FOR THE STATE BAR OF TEXAS
Date: December 2002
Is it permissible under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct for a lawyer and an associate employed by the lawyer to enter into an employment agreement providing for the continued representation of, and a division of fees collected from, a contingent fee client following the termination of the associate’s employment?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 545
Cite: THE PROFESSIONAL ETHICS COMMITTEE FOR THE STSTE BAR OF TEXAS
Date: October 2002
Is it a violation of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct for a lawyer to enter into a fee arrangement with a governmental taxing unit to collect its delinquent taxes where, under the arrangement, a portion or all of the statutory penalties designated for legal fees may be kept by the taxing unit rather than paid to the lawyer if certain collection goals are not met?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 544
Cite: THE PROFESSIONAL ETHICS COMMITTEE FOR THE STATE BAR OF TEXAS
Date: April 2002
May a lawyer who serves as a member of a city council participate in discussions and vote as a member of the city council on a matter involving a client of the lawyer’s former law firm where the lawyer had performed no work on the matter for such client and had received no confidential information relating to such client while the lawyer was employed by the former law firm?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 543
Cite: THE PROFESSIONAL ETHICS COMMITTEE FOR THE STATE BAR OF TEXAS
Date: April 2002
Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, may a lawyer enter into an agreement as described below with a healthcare provider, for which the lawyer is its in-house counsel, to refer patients with personal injury claims to that lawyer?
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