Attorneys who represent customers of mortgage-modification companies — increasingly attractive work these days — are at risk of losing their law licenses if they split fees with the financiers, two New Jersey Supreme Court committees say.
In a joint opinion issued June 26, the Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics and the Committee on the Unauthorized Practice of Law state that acceptance of legal fees from such a company, or dividing with the company a fee paid by a homeowner, constitutes impermissible fee-sharing, and an attorney who engages in such a practice “imperils his or her license to practice law.”
