IT IS ETHICALLY PERMISSIBLE FOR LAWYERS TO BE LISTED IN THE YELLOW
PAGES OF TELEPHONE DIRECTORIES BY GEOGRAPHICAL AREA IN ADDITION TO
BEING LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER IF ALL LAWYERS ARE SO LISTED BUT
FAILURE TO INCLUDE ALL LAWYERS IN A SUB-GEOGRAPHICAL CLASSIFICATION
WOULD NOT BE APPROPRIATE.
FACTS
You inquire as to whether it is ethically permissible for lawyers
to be listed in the yellow pages of telephone directories by geographical
area, in addition to being listed in alphabetical order. You state
that the question arises because physicians are listed in such way
in the yellow pages of the Omaha telephone directory, and that you
have been told by the telephone company that such manner of listing
is approved by some official medical association entity.
DISCUSSION
Disciplinary Rule DR 2-102(a)(5) permits attorney listings in telephone
directories in the following language:
"A listing of the office of a lawyer or law firm in the alphabetical
and classified sections of the telephone directory or directories
for the geographical area or areas in which the lawyer resides or
maintains offices or in which a significant part of his clientele
resides and in the city directory of the city in which his or the
firm's office is located; but the listing may give only the name of
the lawyer or law firm, the fact he is a lawyer, addresses, and telephone
numbers. The listing shall not be in distinctive form or type. A law
firm may have a listing in the firm name separate from that of its
members and associates. The listing in the classified section shall
not be under a heading or classification other than 'Attorneys' or
'Lawyers', except that additional headings or classifications descriptive
of the types of practice referred to in DR 2-105 are permitted."
We have been unable to find any prior ruling on the express subject
of your inquiry. In general, the pertinent ethical consideration is
not to permit the listing of any one lawyer in a manner distinctive
from his fellow lawyers, such as in bold-face, since such listing
would tend to attract attention to the one lawyer and be a form of
advertising.
CONCLUSION
Accordingly, if a particular local bar association such as the Omaha
Bar Association, were to decide that listing of all lawyers in a larger
metropolitan area by sub-geographical sections in the yellow pages
in addition to alphabetically would be desirable, it is the opinion
of the Committee that such practice would be ethically permissible.
However, we would point out that a review of the listings for physicians
in the current Omaha telephone directory shows there is contained
approximately eight pages in the alphabetical listings, but only
approximately two and one-half pages in the sub-geographical listings.
Thus, it would appear that only a minority of the physicians are
repeat-listed in the sub-geographical classification. It is the
view of the Committee that a similar failure to include all lawyers
in a sub-geographical classification would not be appropriate.
76-11, November 12, 1976
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