A Discussion of Ethics: Unbundled Legal Services

The Iowa rules of ethics and the Ethics Opinions published by the Iowa Supreme Court Board of Professional Ethics and Conduct are incredibly sparse regarding VLOs and the practice of law online ("Incredibly sparse" should be read to mean "void of any direct guidance"). However, there are two ethics opinions that relate tangentially to operating a VLO. Specifically, these opinions address "ghost writing" documents for pro se litigants. (WARNING: the following may contain lawyer-speak.)

Best I can tell, "ghost writing" is known today as "unbundled legal services," or at least a category of unbundled legal services. The first opinion addressing the issue is Opinion 94-35. In that opinion, the ethics board cited to Committee v. Mahoney and Committee v. Gartin, two Iowa cases, which both held that the preparation of legal pleadings constitutes the practice of law. In citing to those court decisions, the board stated: "It is the opinion of the Board that it is improper for an Iowa lawyer to prepare pleadings for use in pro se proceedings in any state court in which counsel is not licensed to practice." (94-35, paragraph 3) The board went on to say that such "ghost writing" is "a deception on the court" because the lawyer is trying to avoid his "inherent...responsibilities to the court and to the law." (94-35, paragraph 4) Having arrived at this conclusion, the Board references the reader to a Colorado case which cites to ABA Informal Ethics Opinion 1414, which we'll discuss below with the non-Iowa ethics opinions.

The other Iowa Ethics Opinion on point is Opinion 96-31. In that opinion, the Board concludes that a lawyer can meet her ethical duties to the court as they relate to the drafting of pleadings by indicating on the face of the pleadings that lawyer authorship is involved. Specifically, the Board stated: "[A]s long as the Court is informed of the lawyer who prepared the pleading no [...] violation would occur and it would not be improper."(96-31, paragraph 2)

(There is a final Iowa Ethics Opinion addressing ghost writing in the context of military lawyers, but the facts of that opinion are not on point for this discussion and would only serve to confuse it. You can find it here.)

Based on this research, the ethics rule in play is DR 1-102(A)(4), which states: "A lawyer shall not [...] engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation." (The corresponding Iowa rule is Rule 32:8.4(c).)

One of my concerns regarding a VLO centered on unbundled legal services. This concern is at least partly addressed by the two opinions cited here: Unbundled legal services are, at the very least, permissible, so long as any legal pleadings show on their face that they were prepared by an attorney and provide the identity of that attorney.