---
kind: "section"
citation: "37 C.F.R. § 11.703"
title: "37"
number: "11.703"
heading: "Solicitation of clients."
url: "https://uscodex.org/cfr/37/11.703"
---

# §11.703. Solicitation of clients.

- (a) “Solicitation” or “solicit” denotes a communication initiated by or on behalf of a practitioner or law firm that is directed to a specific person the practitioner knows or reasonably should know needs legal services in a particular matter and that offers to provide, or reasonably can be understood as offering to provide, legal services for that matter.
- (b) A practitioner shall not solicit professional employment by live person-to-person contact when a significant motive for the practitioner's doing so is the practitioner's or law firm's pecuniary gain, unless the contact is with a:
  - (1) Practitioner;
  - (2) Person who has a family, close personal, or prior business or professional relationship with the practitioner or law firm; or
  - (3) Person who routinely uses for business purposes the type of legal services offered by the practitioner.
- (c) A practitioner shall not solicit professional employment even when not otherwise prohibited by [paragraph (b)](#b) of this section, if:
  - (1) The target of solicitation has made known to the practitioner a desire not to be solicited by the practitioner, or
  - (2) **The solicitation involves coercion, duress, or harassment.**
- (d) This section does not prohibit communications authorized by law or ordered by a court or other tribunal.
- (e) Notwithstanding the prohibitions in this section, a practitioner may participate with a prepaid or group legal service plan operated by an organization not owned or directed by the practitioner that uses live person-to-person contact to enroll members or sell subscriptions for the plan from persons who are not known to need legal services in a particular matter covered by the plan.

## Notes

### Amendments

[86 FR 28467, May 26, 2021]

### Source

Source: 78 FR 20201, Apr. 3, 2013, unless otherwise noted.

### Authority

Authority: 5 U.S.C. 500; 15 U.S.C. 1123; 35 U.S.C. 2(b)(2), 32, 41; Sec. 1, Pub. L. 113-227, 128 Stat. 2114.

### Source

Source: 69 FR 35452, June 24, 2004, unless otherwise noted.

### Amendments

[86 FR 28467, May 26, 2021]