Maurya Lane from BBE in Cary, North Carolina has been fighting the North Carolina State Bar Association who wants to prohibit lawyers from participating in barter exchanges in the state.
Maurya has been assisted in her efforts by IRTA’s Executive Director, Ron Whitney and NATE President, Gary Oshry.
A NC Bar Association meeting was held in Raleigh, NC to ostensibly pass the proposed prohibiting opinion. Maurya Lane and Ron Whitney attended the meeting and argued that
lawyers participating in barter exchanges DOES NOT represent fee splitting or commissions. The NC Bar Association was sufficiently persuaded to send the issue back to the sub-committee level for further review and discussion. A follow-up Bar Association sub-committee teleconference was held on June 14th and the sub committee voted 4 to 1 in favor of re-writing the proposed opinion to allow attorneys to barter in North Carolina, subject to a set of reasonable criteria similar to what other states have that allow attorneys to barter. The revised favorable opinion will be submitted to the Bar Association sub-committee in their next meeting on July 22nd, and if approved will be submitted to the full Bar Association Committee for final approval.
The battle is on going and we will keep you posted as to the latest developments as they occur.
