Definition
Lawyer solicitation is a communication that a lawyer, or someone acting for the lawyer, starts with a specific person known to need legal services in a particular matter, offering to handle that matter. Under ABA Model Rule 7.3, written solicitation is generally allowed, while live contact for a fee is banned outside three exceptions.
In plain English
You may speak freely to the general public: a website, a billboard, a TV commercial, or a search ad is advertising, and so is a reply to someone who asked you for information (comment [1] to Rule 7.3). Each must still be truthful and not misleading (Rule 7.1).
The ban targets "live person-to-person contact" with someone you know needs help, when your fee is a significant motive (Rule 7.3(b)): in-person visits, live phone calls, and real-time video. Letters, emails, texts, and direct messages are written, so they are allowed if they are truthful, free of coercion or harassment, and stop once the person says no (Rule 7.3(c)).
Live contact stays open with other lawyers, with family, close personal, or prior professional contacts such as former clients, and with routine business users of the service you offer. The logic dates back to Ohralik v. Ohio State Bar Association (1978), where a lawyer approached a young accident victim in her hospital room: a person in distress has no time to reflect, and a live conversation leaves no record.
Sanctions run from private admonition to disbarment, and under Rules 8.4(a) and 5.3 you answer for what staff, agencies, or lead vendors do in your name. Our guide to lawyer solicitation rules compares the states.
For a law firm
A business litigation firm in Tampa sees in the public court docket that a supplier has just sued a local family-owned manufacturer. The partner cannot call the owner to offer a defense: a specific company, a known legal need, a fee as the motive. And Florida, unlike the Model Rule, has no exception for businesses that routinely hire lawyers.
The firm has two compliant routes. It can send a targeted email, which in Florida starts its subject line with "Advertisement," describes the partner's experience, and says how the firm learned of the case. Or it can publish an article on supply contract disputes and rank for "business litigation lawyer Tampa." If the owner finds it and calls, the firm is answering an inquiry, not soliciting.
The Hendy figure
Across the law firms we have worked with since 2024, 78% say they have already faced the question of where permitted outreach ends and prohibited solicitation begins, especially on LinkedIn. The platform blurs the line: a post sharing useful content is advertising, a message offering to take a specific person's case is a written solicitation, and a cold voice or video call is banned live contact.
Key takeaways
- Live solicitation for a fee, in person, by phone, or by real-time video, is banned outside three exceptions, and Florida drops the routine business user one.
- Written solicitation is allowed if truthful, free of coercion, and dropped after a no; states add labels and waiting periods.
- Public communication is not solicitation: be found through content and search ads, then answer fast.
- What staff, agencies, or lead vendors do in your name counts as yours.