Jacoby and Meyers has made quite a splash filing lawsuits in New York(Federal Court), New Jersey and Connecticut challenging each State's prohibition of non-attorney investment in law firms. The New York case filed in the Southern District of New York is assigned to none other than Judge Lewis A. Kaplan . Judge Kaplan , currently involved in the Ecuadorian Chevron case has a reputation for being tough-minded and not afraid to make a difficult or unpopular decision.
So what are Jacoby and Meyers' lawsuits really about? Are they looking for outside investors to pump money into their firm via equity ownership? I doubt it, since they probably have access to millions via credit lines, etc. Do they want to have the ability to sell part of their law firms to outside investors to "cash out" ? Maybe.
Do they want to be able to sell parts of the firm come retirement time? Do they want to take the firm public? Who knows.....
I fully support the ownership /investment by non-lawyers in law practices. The days of considering a law practice "a profession " and " not a business " are long gone. As long as the "attorney owners " are bound by the canons and Code of Ethics , I don't see any problem with this concept . You may want to limit non-attorney ownership to 49 %; What do you think?
It's about time that attorneys who are treated as business people by the whole world , are treated accordingly by their own Appellate Divisions!
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