NYSBA Committee on Professional Ethics - Trade name: Opinion 1179

Daily Record Staff//March 9, 2020//

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New York State Bar Association Committee on Professional Ethics

Trade name

California firm – New York branch

Ethics Opinion 1179

Background: The inquiring attorney is admitted to practice in New York and wishes to open a New York law office for a law firm the main office of which is in California. The inquiring attorney asks if an out-of-state law firm that is permitted to practice law using a trade name in its home state practice law in New York using its trade name. He also asks that if the inquirer cannot practice under the California trade name, may the California firm establish a New York presence with lawyers who are not admitted in New York.

Opinion: The Committee concluded that a New York attorney may not practice in New York under a trade name in New York, even when the attorney’s office is a branch of an out-of-state law firm that is permitted to practice under the trade name in its home state.