Joining the heated debate on whether lawyers and other professionals should be allowed to affiliate, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York’s executive committee came out in support of multidisciplinary practice, provided the “core values” of the legal profession prevail in any new partnerships.
But the City Bar, setting a condition that would quash the ambitions of Big Five accounting firms seeking to add law practices, said it could not support an MDP that provides both audit and legal services because there is an “irreconcilable difference” between the confidentiality obligations of lawyers and the public disclosure obligations of auditors.
