Has Upwork been approved as a qualified lawyer referral service?

[ncfavreau]

Greetings, 

I am an attorney licensed to practice in Connecticut. Pursuant to the CT Rule of Professional 7.2(c) "[a] lawyer shall not compensate, give or promise anything of value to a person for recommending the lawyer's services, except a lawyer may: . . . (2) pay the usual charges for a . . . qualified lawyer referral service.   The commentary to this rule provides that a qualified lawyer referral service is one that is approved by an appropriate regulatory authority as affording adequate protections for the public. See e.g., tge American Bar Association's Model Supreme Court Rules Governing Lawyer Referral Services  and Model Lawyer Referal and information Service Quality Assurance Act.   

Has Upwork been approved as a qualified lawyer referral service by any appropriate regulatory authority in any state in the U.S.A. If so, where may I find documents to establish such approval?

Thanks. 

Nathan C. Favreau, Esq.  

[mwiggenhorn]

I''m not a lawyer but rather a long time paralegal.  You might want to check out a lawsuit in Santa Clara Superior Court (CA) LegalForce vs. Upwork et al. which makes the point that Upwork taking a fee from attorney freelancers is illegal/ unethical fee splitting.

Your question is somewhat different.  I personally haven't seen anything regarding Upwork being a qualified lawyer referral service.  You might want to check the Upwork forums, Reddit and good old Google, as well as various state regulatory authorities.  

I doubt you will get a straight answer from Upwork as their legal staff is well-hidden.  Good luck.

[prestonhunter]

Nathan:
Opinions differ.

Some people say "yes."

Other people say "no."

[mwiggenhorn]

Preston, you are wrong.  No one has ever opined on this subject as far as I can research.  Please don't answer legal questions that are out of your sphere.

[petra_r]

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Preston H wrote:

Nathan:
Opinions differ.

Some people say "yes."

Other people say "no."

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Even from you, that is an utterly ridiculous statement.

[feed_my_eyes]

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Nathan F wrote:

Greetings, 

I am an attorney licensed to practice in Connecticut. Pursuant to the CT Rule of Professional 7.2(c) "[a] lawyer shall not compensate, give or promise anything of value to a person for recommending the lawyer's services, except a lawyer may: . . . (2) pay the usual charges for a . . . qualified lawyer referral service.   The commentary to this rule provides that a qualified lawyer referral service is one that is approved by an appropriate regulatory authority as affording adequate protections for the public. See e.g., tge American Bar Association's Model Supreme Court Rules Governing Lawyer Referral Services  and Model Lawyer Referal and information Service Quality Assurance Act.   

Has Upwork been approved as a qualified lawyer referral service by any appropriate regulatory authority in any state in the U.S.A. If so, where may I find documents to establish such approval?

Thanks. 

Nathan C. Favreau, Esq.  

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I'm no lawyer, but isn't Upwork simply listing freelancers, as opposed to recommending or referring them? I wouldn't think it's much different than finding a lawyer through the yellow pages.

[mwiggenhorn]

Christine, the whole thing is a muddle.  Various states will have various rules although fee splitting is always an issue.

[feed_my_eyes]

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Mary W wrote:

Christine, the whole thing is a muddle.  Various states will have various rules although fee splitting is always an issue.

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Forgive me, I wasn't try to weigh in on the legalities, just the use of "recommend" in this instance.

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Nathan,

Upwork has many attorneys that use the site to offer legal services to clients that they locate on the platform. Upwork is a platform where attorneys can market their services to their clients and is not a lawyer referral service.  Upwork does not recommend attorneys to prospective clients and our talent services are not available to assist attorneys in finding clients.  

With respect to service fees, you should keep in mind that freelancers collect 100% of the legal fees paid by clients, and then separately make a payment of service fees to Upwork for the use of Upwork and Upwork services.  The purpose of the service fees is to compensate Upwork for the services Upwork provides to you (e.g., marketing, communication, contracting, escrow, invoicing), not to share the fees you receive from your clients.  Services fees - like credit card service fees - are a business expense equally applicable to all users, whether the services are for web development, translation, or legal services.  

Of course, attorneys are ultimately responsible for complying with the rules in their state and we cannot advise you on how specific state rules apply to users.  While we hope you use Upwork to find new clients, we understand that it may not meet the needs of all attorneys in all states.

[mwiggenhorn]

Valeria, that is by far the best and clearest response I've ever seen to these questions.  Thanks!

[wlyonsatl]

From this layman's point of view all of that makes sense, Valeria, but the Job Success Score is a rating system of sorts and could be construed as recommending clients use some Upwork freelancers who are lawyers and recommending clients not use some Upwork freelancers who are lawyers.

But I would find it hard to believe that this subject has not been considered by Upwork's legal advisers.

[c2ym7r]

Glad I found this thread. I was about to post a job under the impression it would only be available to licensed attorneys and was in the process of making one of the screening questions asking for their bar number.  That caused me to search about why no bar numbers in profiles/whatever and boom... found this thread.

Needless to say I won't be posting the job and Upworks response to you all is... umm... something.

[VladimirG]

Hi Cory,

Thanks for sharing your feedback in the Community. I moved your post to a more recent thread on which we posted information that I believe does address the concern you're having. Please check Valeria's response I copied below and let us know if you have any questions. Thank you.

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Valeria K wrote:

Hi Nathan,

Upwork has many attorneys that use the site to offer legal services to clients that they locate on the platform. Upwork is a platform where attorneys can market their services to their clients and is not a lawyer referral service. Upwork does not recommend attorneys to prospective clients and our talent services are not available to assist attorneys in finding clients.  

With respect to service fees, you should keep in mind that freelancers collect 100% of the legal fees paid by clients, and then separately make a payment of service fees to Upwork for the use of Upwork and Upwork services.  The purpose of the service fees is to compensate Upwork for the services Upwork provides to you (e.g., marketing, communication, contracting, escrow, invoicing), not to share the fees you receive from your clients.  Services fees - like credit card service fees - are a business expense equally applicable to all users, whether the services are for web development, translation, or legal services.  

Of course, attorneys are ultimately responsible for complying with the rules in their state and we cannot advise you on how specific state rules apply to users.  While we hope you use Upwork to find new clients, we understand that it may not meet the needs of all attorneys in all states.

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