The Oklahoma Bar Journal September 2022

phone number has been used for a legal business and the amount of advertising that has been invested in publicizing the phone number. But, whatever the circum stances, it is usually best for each lawyer to have their own phone number, not shared with other law yers in the building. The primary reason for this, in my opinion, is if the relationship with the other lawyer or lawyers doesn’t work out and one decides to move, there will be no need to obtain a new number and risk losing contact with clients calling the old number. But having the individual office phone number has other benefits as well. If you pay a person or service to answer your phone, they can answer it with your law firm’s name. If you utilize voicemail, you can have a customized message, including your name. If you invest in marketing efforts that feature your phone num ber as a part of the information, this makes it less likely you will pay for advertising that could benefit your officemates instead of you.

professional liability insurance with the notice given to the other office mates if the policy is ever canceled, just like a lienholder would receive on collateral. If all officemates agree to carry professional liability insur ance with the same policy limits from the same provider, this can be an important safeguard. While the prior discussion about avoid ing implied partnership is very important, if an individual lawyer’s professional liability insurance policy limits are sufficient to cover a client’s claim, there is reduced motivation to try to bring in another lawyer defendant – particularly one who didn’t work on the matter. Once you have a good working agreement between all insured offi cemates and everyone has included the proper provisions in their engagement letters, what’s next? THE PHONES For some types of law practices, the phone number may be one of the lawyer’s most valuable assets. This varies based on how long a

Once I was in an office-sharing relationship with an attorney who died. His brother, also an attor ney, had a different type of law practice and was happy to let the remaining lawyers keep his broth er’s phone number. We assigned that number to the last rollover line so we would know when calls coming in were directly coming into it. He must have been very good about giving out his business card because that phone rang with potential client inquiries for years. So most experienced lawyers will want to keep their own phone numbers. A jointly owned phone number may be quite a bone of contention when an office sharing arrangement terminates. Include how that will be decided in your operating agreement. SHARING OF STAFF AND CONTRACTORS Is it appropriate for officemates in an office-sharing relationship to share staff? As we lawyers often have to say, it depends.

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THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL