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#Law Firm Names: An Explanation - Law Blog

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Earlier today, we picked up an entertaining read by Reuters on Chinese law firm names. They aren t bound by the same ethics rules as U.S. firms, so they can be more creative. Beijing-based King Wood, for instance you won t find a Mr. King or a Mr. Wood at the firm. They don t exist. But the name is catchy.

Anyway, earlier today we wrote this:

In the U.S. ethics rules require law firms to carry the last name of partners who work there, or who did before they retired or died. China has no such rules. Firms there are free to name themselves however they like, and an evocative name can be an asset.

Then we had an astute reader leave this comment:

In the U.S. ethics rules require law firms to carry the last name of partners who work there, or who did before they retired or died.” — This is probably true in only a minority of U.S. states. I believe at least half of the states now allow trade names, if not more

And another smart reader who wrote:

most states do allow trade names. But, in those states, if you use a person’s name as the firm name, or part of it, that person must be a partner (or shareholder), or some one who had that position prior to retirement or death.

They are both right, according to Mike Downey, a partner at Armstrong Teasdale LLP in St. Louis and vice chairman of the ABA s  Law Practice Management section.

In 1979, the  Supreme court looked at whether optometrists in Texas could use trade names in Friedman v. Rogers. The majority in the case ruled that a regulation that prohibited the use of assumed names was constitutional because it was meant to curb deceptive practices; Justice Harry Blackmun, joined by Justice Thurgood Marshall, found the regulation violated the First Amendment.

At the time, most states required law firms to take their names from partners at the firm, or partners who had retired or died, Downey said.

But a few years after Friedman v. Rogers, the American Bar Association changed its model rules which are generally incorporated by individual state bar associations to reflect that firms could use trade names as long as they weren t deceptive.

Downey said most states allow trade names these days, but King Wood potentially would have to drop the name were it to open its doors in the U.S.

If you were to name a firm King Wood, the expectation would be that King and Wood actually work there, he said.

In other words, if a firm uses a person s name to which it has no earthly connection, that could be considered deceptive, Downey said.

Deceptive, he added, is often defined very broadly.