The Ohio Board of Professional Conduct has issued two new advisory opinions addressing a lawyer’s professional obligations under the Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct.

Advisory Opinion 2023-07 concludes that a discharged lawyer may not solicit a former client to reestablish the client-lawyer relationship after the former client has obtained a new lawyer in the same matter. The board reasoned that the Rule of Professional Conduct prohibiting contact by a lawyer with a person known to be represented by another lawyer is applicable in such a situation and that the discharged lawyer may not rely on the prior professional relationship as a basis for soliciting the former client.

Advisory Opinion 2023-08 addresses the permissible content of an employment contract between a law firm and a lawyer. The opinion holds that the contract may not include a provision that requires a lawyer, when leaving a firm with a client’s case, to reimburse the firm for its advertising costs based on a percentage of the legal fees the lawyer earns. Such a requirement imposes an impermissible restriction on the practice of the departing lawyer. The firm’s contractual requirement would also operate as an impermissible division of fees between unassociated lawyers without client consent.