APRIL 2024 | 79 THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL Oklahoma Rules of Professional Conduct Okla. Stat. tit. 5 ch. 1, app. 3-A Article Information About Legal Services Rule 7.3. Direct Contact With Prospective Clients Solicitation of Clients RULE 7.3 SOLICITATION OF CLIENTS (a) “Solicitation” or “solicit” denotes a communication initiated by or on behalf of a lawyer or law firm that is directed to a specific person the lawyer knows or reasonably should know needs legal services in a particular matter and that offers to provide, or reasonably can be understood as offering to provide, legal services for that matter. (a) (b) A lawyer shall not solicit professional employment by live person-to-person contact in-person, live telephone or real-time electronic contact, solicit professional employment when a significant motive for the lawyer’s doing so is the lawyer’s or law firm’s pecuniary gain, unless the person contacted is with a: (1) is a lawyer; or (2) person who has a family, close personal, or prior business or professional relationship with the lawyer; or (3) person who is known by the lawyer to be an experienced user of the type of legal services involved for business matters. (b) (c) A lawyer shall not solicit professional employment by written, recorded or electronic communication or by in-person, telephone or real-time electronic contact 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. (c) Every written, recorded or electronic communication from a lawyer soliciting professional employment from anyone known to be in need of legal services in a particular matter shall include the words “Advertising Material” on the outside of the envelope, if any, and at the beginning and ending of any recorded or electronic communication, unless the recipient of the communication is a person specified in paragraphs (a)(1) or (a)(2). (d) This Rule does not prohibit communications authorized by law or ordered by a court or other tribunal. (d) (e) Notwithstanding the prohibitions in this Rule paragraph (a), a lawyer may participate with a prepaid or group legal service plan operated by an organization not owned or directed by the lawyer that uses in- person or telephone live person-to-person contact to solicit enroll memberships or sell subscriptions for the plan from persons who are not known to need legal services in a particular matter covered by the plan. COMMENT [1] A solicitation is a targeted communication initiated by the lawyer that is directed to a specific person and that offers to provide, or can reasonably be understood as offering to provide, legal services. In contrast, a Paragraph (b) prohibits a lawyer from soliciting professional employment by live person-to-person contact when a significant motive for the lawyer’s doing so is the lawyer’s or the law firm’s pecuniary gain. A lawyer’s communication is typically does not constitute a solicitation if it is directed to the general public, such as through a billboard, an Internet banner advertisement, a website or a television commercial, or if it is in response to a request for information or is automatically generated in response to electronic Internet searches. [2] “Live person-to-person contact” means in-person, face-to-face, live telephone and other real-time visual or auditory person-to-person communications such as Skype or FaceTime, where the person is subject to a direct personal encounter without time for reflection. Such person-to-person contact does not include chat rooms, text messages or other written communications that recipients may easily disregard. There is a A potential for abuse
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