Colorado Attorney Advertising Rules Updated

I've been fascinated with attorney ethics advertising rules since law school. So much so that, in lieu of taking a final exam in Professional Responsibility, my friend John Gray and I opted to write and record a series of unethical attorney advertising radio commercials which systematically violated every rule in the then-effective ABA Code of Professional Responsibility, together with a footnoted transcript demonstrating that we had busted them all. I still regularly quote a line from one of John's ads: "We give you cashmere service at a polyester price!"

It was a lot easier to write unethical advertisements under the old CPR.  The Code of Professional Responsibility was essentially a laundry list of "Thou Shalt Nots." The rules could have been shortened to "Don't Touch That" and saved a lot of ink. Other than allowing inclusion in a "lawyer's directory," and sanctioning public speaking engagements on legal topics, advertising was verboten in exquisite and minute detail. This provided a veritable road map of rules for John and me to bust.

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