Speaking at the New York University Center for Law and Business last week, AICPA general counsel Richard Miller said that contrary to what the American Bar Association believes, partnerships between lawyers and non-lawyers would pose no ethical violations and that MDPs would be highly desirable in light of current market forces.

The debate over MDPs has raged on for years, resulting in sharply divided camps in both the accounting and legal professions. According to Miller and other MDP supporters, market demand is driving the movement toward multidisciplinary practices.

"More and more often clients want professional service providers who can offer multiple services in one location," according to Miller.

"Accounting firms have been MDPs for years," Miller said. "On a routine basis, they bring together auditors, tax experts, consultants in disciplines such as information technology, employee benefits, actuarial services, economics engineering and business valuation, just to name a few." He noted that the lawyers working for them don't practice as lawyers, but function as part of "a multidisciplinary team."

American Bar Association rules currently ban fee-sharing partnerships between lawyers and non-lawyers. Despite recommendations by the ABA's Commission on Multidisciplinary Practices to repeal the rules that prohibit fee-sharing with non-lawyers, the ABA rejected the MDP concept in a vote at its national convention last July and then discharged the Commission on MDPs. However, many state bar associations, including Philadelphia and Washington D.C., have repealed the ban, paving the way for MDPs.

The AICPA is one of several groups that have come out strongly in favor of MDPs. In his speech, Miller noted that in most situations, the current AICPA rules have abandoned the prohibition on CPA firms having non-CPA owners to permit CPAs to practice in firms that are not wholly, or even partially, owned by CPAs. Consumer groups, including the The Consumer Alliance, a national coalition of consumer and small business groups, have also given their approval to the idea of MDPs.

The ABA's rejection of MDPs asserted the need "to safeguard the core values of the legal profession." The argument by some MDP opponents from the legal profession is that a lawyer who practices in an MDP would succumb to pressure from nonlawyers in the firm to disregard the legal profession's values. Opponents of MDPs on the accounting side contend that their professional functions make accountants and lawyers incompatible, since lawyers must act as advocates for their clients, while accountants, as auditors, must be objective. However, supporters of MDPs claim that the bar's resistance to them has been motivated more by economics than by ethics.

Miller called on the state bar associations to advocate change. "While the ABA has relinquished the opportunity to lead the legal profession, the operative rules of the profession are set by state courts and legislatures, not the ABA. It is therefore now up to the state bar associations to decide whether they will be advocates for necessary change, or whether they will continue to defend barriers that seek to keep lawyers safe from competition."

Read the full text of Miller's speech.

-- By SmartPros News Staff

Send comments to information@smartpros.com.

Back to NewsLine