The State Bar of Arizona has finally caught up with the reality of the World Wide Web.

In a new formal opinion, the bar’s ethics committee has finally agreed to let law firms have web pages with the “.org” suffix. Up until now, that has been banned.
At the heart of the issue are two rules which govern the professional conduct of attorneys.

One prohibits lawyers from making or permitting false statements about the attorney or his or her services. The other precludes use of a firm name, letterhead or other professional designation that violates the first rule.

Based on that, the ethics panel a decade ago rules that firms that have web sites must set them up with a “.com” suffix. That was based on the conclusion that a for-profit law firm’s use of the “.org” suffix “creates a false impression that the firm is either a non-profit or in some ways specifically affiliated with a non-profit.”

The panel, however, noted that since 2001 the use of internet domain names, including those with an “.org” suffix, has skyrocketed.

“In light of the widespread use of the ‘.org’ suffix by for-profit organizations since (the 2001 opinion) was issued, the possibility that the public will be misled by a for-profit firm’s use of ‘.org’ on its website is remote,” the opinion reads. “A reasonable person, desiring to verify whether an entity is non-profit, would not rely solely on the entity’s website address.”

But the ethics panel cautioned that this new opinion is not carte blanche for attorneys to do what they want with their Internet domain names. The key, the committee said, goes back to the ethics rules about being honest with clients, whether by commission or omissions.

“Thus, a lawyer or law firm may not use a domain name that falsely implies that the lawyer or the law firm is affiliated with a particular non-profit organization or with a governmental entity or which otherwise is false or misleading,” the opinion states.