OFFICE SHARING GUIDELINES
PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY FUND [Rev. 05/2023] Office Sharing Guidelines – Page 1
If you want to share space with another lawyer, but do not want to be a de facto law firm for
conflict or vicarious liability purposes, follow these guidelines:
1. Use a written office-sharing agreement. Include the names of the parties, effective date
of the agreement, and terms of the agreement. Specify each party’s contribution toward
rent, common office expenses, and secretarial or other staffing costs. Address
ownership of furnishings, equipment, research, and educational materials (joint and
individual). Require office-share mates to adhere to these guidelines, and provide for the
timing and manner of termination of the agreement. (You may wish to include specific
provisions covering death, incapacity, or automatic termination of a party who is
suspended from or loses the privilege to practice law.)
Other optional clauses include:
• Designation of an “office manager” to maintain an office account, collect and
disburse funds, purchase common supplies, prepare an annual budget, and manage
the affairs of the office.
• Adoption of policies and procedures to ensure the respective lawyers abide by the
Oregon Formal Ethics Opinions and Oregon Rules of Professional Conduct.
• Standards for office décor and appearance.
• Conditions under which other lawyers may be added to the office-sharing
arrangement.
• Resolution of disputes or disagreements.
2. Make sure your business cards, advertising, letterhead, and pleading paper are separate
from your office-share mate’s. List only your name or your own firm’s name. The name
of your office-share mate should not be on your business card, letterhead, pleading
paper, advertisements, or website.
3. Make sure all signs (such as those posted on the office door, building directory, and
building exterior) present the relationship between you and the other lawyers. If you are
a solo practitioner sharing space with a law firm, list your name separately. You can
signify this separation by placing a line between the firm’s name and yours. Include the
phrase “sole practitioner” after your name.
4. Respect the confidentiality of information relating to the representation of your respective
clients and direct your employees to do so.
5. Keep your respective client files separate. If they must be kept in the same file room,
keep the files physically separated and ensure that appropriate limitations on access to
files are clarified to and observed by all lawyers and their employees.
6. If there is a common telephone system, ensure that telephone messages, which contain
confidential information or information relating to the representation of a client, are not
given to or transmitted by shared employees. Ideally, each attorney should have his or
her own telephone line and number.
7. If you will share a server, have an IT professional partition the server so you cannot
access each other’s files.
8. Mail must not be opened by shared employees.
OFFICE SHARING GUIDELINES
PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY FUND [Rev. 05/2023] Office Sharing Guidelines – Page 2
9. Faxes must not be read by shared employees. Fax cover sheets should be used for
outgoing faxes and requested from parties who fax confidential information to the shared
office fax.
10. Have the receptionist answer the phone in a manner that conveys separation from the
other law firm. Answering the phone “Law Offices of John Doe” is an effective way of
reminding the clients you are separate from “Smith and Jones,” the firm with whom you
share space. Using separate phone numbers makes this easy to do and is less
confusing than having one phone number answered, “Law Offices.”
11. If you will have your office-share mate help you on a case, get your client’s written
consent first, just as you would if you associated an attorney who did not work at the end
of the hallway. Before you accept assistance with a case, ask your office-share mate to
run a conflict check and provide confirmation that no conflict of interest exists. If you will
split fees, follow Rule 1.5(d) of the Oregon Rules of Professional Conduct.
12. Maintain your own conflict-of-interest system. This preserves all of your clients’
confidences and secrets and helps establish that you are a separate entity.
13. Maintain your own general and trust accounts.
14. If you share a secretary or other employee in possession of the confidences and secrets
of both your clients and the clients of the other lawyers in the office share, then the
simultaneous representation of adverse parties would be prohibited. To avoid this
problem, exchange client names with other lawyers in the office share. Advise your client
that because of your office share, there is a need to provide the client’s name to the
other lawyers so a proper conflict of interest check can be performed. Your client must
give informed consent, which should be confirmed in writing, before you disclose your
client’s name to other lawyers.
15. If you become “of counsel” to your office-share mate, or your office-share mate becomes
“of counsel” to you, you will be treated as a single firm for conflict-of-interest purposes.
See OSB Formal Ethics Opinion No. 2005-155. Lawyers or firms in “of counsel”
relationships may also have vicarious liability for one another’s negligent or intentional
acts under the general rules of agency and partnership.
IMPORTANT NOTICES
This material is provided for informational purposes only and does not establish, report, or create
the standard of care for attorneys in Oregon, nor does it represent a complete analysis of the
topics. Readers should conduct their own appropriate legal research. The information presented
does not represent legal advice. This information may not be republished, sold, or used in any
other form without the written consent of the Oregon State Bar Professional Liability Fund except
that permission is granted for Oregon lawyers to use and modify these materials for their own
practices. © 2023 OSB Professional Liability Fund