CHICAGO–An influential Paris-based international law association has proposed universal ethics rules that, it says, could serve as a model for the United States and other countries that are considering allowing lawyers to form multidisciplinary practices.

Some critics, however, say that the standards proposed by l’Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA) are unenforceable against nonlawyers, while others say that they discriminate in favor of the legal profession at the expense of others.