This June marks 47 years since the U.S. Supreme Court decided Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, determining that commercial speech merited First Amendment protection. The decision allowed attorneys to supply consumers with valuable information about the availability and cost of legal services — in other words, advertising.
The ABA drafted and then adopted the Model Rules of Professional Conduct by 1983, and state Supreme Courts followed suit, adopting the ABA rules but not always identically. States modified language to preserve the integrity of their own manner of practicing law, or added aspirational rules, and with those additions the rule names and numbers no longer aligned with the ABA’s Rule. Adding to the confusion were comments and opinions added to the rules, meant to assist with rule interpretations but often adding layers of information that lacked clarity.
