Federal Judge Nixes Much of New York State's Restrictive Lawyer Advertising Rules

Common sense seems to have prevailed in most of a federal judge's decision on July 20th to overturn most of New York State's restrictive lawyer advertising rules.  A story about the decision appears today in the New York Law Journal here.  We wrote extensively about this issue here , here, and here,  criticizing the Office of Court Administration for going too far in its well-intended approach due to a few bad apples. This decision is a good start. The OCA and the New York State Bar Association should get out of the business of policing law firm advertising; instead, they should focus their energies and resources on their own marketing and advertising regarding attorney ethics and the justice system. That will certainly help consumers of legal services make better decisions when hiring a lawyer or law firm, which was the goal of the restrictions in the first place.