Quiz-Class 4

Successful Appeal of Question 4
4. What are differences between ABA Model Rule 7.3 and GRPC 7.3?
A. ABA 7.3 permits in person solicitation of professional employment if the person contacted has
a close personal relationship with the lawyer.
B. ABA 7.3 only prohibits in person solicitation of professional employment if a significant motive
for doing so is the lawyer's pecuniary gain.
C. GRPC 7.3 requires that the word "Advertisement" appear on the top of each page of a written
communication to a prospective client for the purpose of obtaining professional employment
D. All of the above.
E. None of the above.

In class, D was indicated as the correct answer. For D to be correct, the first three options would all have to be true, which we believe is not the case. Our firm is of the opinion that answer B is not true because of the chosen wording- the key word being “only.” ABA 7.3(a) does prohibit in person solicitation when a significant motive for the lawyer’s doing so is the lawyer’s pecuniary gain. However, ABA 7.3(b) also prohibits in person solicitation even when not otherwise prohibited by paragraph (a), if (1) the target of the solicitation has made known to the lawyer a desire not to be solicited by the lawyer; or (2) the solicitation involves coercion, duress or harassment. Based on this, option B is clearly not true, thus, option D could not be correct.  This forced our firm to choose between options A, C, and E.
                Option A, on its face, appears to be a true difference between ABA 7.3 and GRPC 7.3; however, the wording is again misleading. Option A states, “ABA 7.3 permits…”, when in fact, the ABA rules may permit in person solicitation if the person contacted has a close personal relationship with the lawyer. Due to the existence of ABA 7.3(b), a lawyer will be prohibited from in person solicitation of a close personal friend when the solicitation involves coercion, duress or harassment; or if the target of the solicitation has made known to the lawyer a desire not to be solicited by the lawyer. Hopefully, neither of these situations would occur between “close personal friends,” but the situation is still possible and prohibited. Thus,
                Elimination of A, B, and D left our firm with a choice between C and E, in other words, was C an accurate difference between the two sets of rules. Since GRPC 7.3(b) clearly requires “Advertisement” on the top of each page and ABA 7.3(c) requires “Advertising Material” on the outside of the envelope and makes no reference to marking the pages of the written communication, our firm came to the conclusion that Option C was a clear difference between the ABA Model Rule 7.3 and GRPC 7.3. Accordingly, we chose C and not D.

            APPEAL GRANTED: I grant the appeal based on your demonstrated capacity to read the rules very carefully and your plausible argument that Answers A and B were “poorly worded” (one of the grounds for appeal)
in that Answers A and B do not specifically refer to ABA 7.3(a) and thus could be interpreted as overbroad statements of what ABA 7.3 permits in light of the prohibitions in ABA 7.3(b).

NOTE: Only members of the firm filing this appeal will have C counted as an optional correct answer.