CANON 2 - A LAWYER SHALL MAKE HIS LEGAL SERVICES AVAILABLE IN AN EFFICIENT AND

CONVENIENT MANNER COMPATIBLE WITH THE INDEPENDENCE, INTEGRITY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF

THE PROFESSION.

Duty to be an Efficient Lawyer

 To be efficient does not mean abandonment of one’s integrity in order to achieve a given cause
at all cost
 The lawyer’s efficiency must not be obtained at the price of compromising the effectiveness of
the entire legal profession

Rule 2.01 - A lawyer shall not reject, except for valid reasons, the cause of the defenseless or the
oppressed.

Duty to the Defenseless and the Oppressed

 The mandates all lawyers to accept as clients those who may have found themselves on the
fringes of society
 The general rule is that the lawyer is duty-bound to serve these marginalized citizens

Rule 2.02 - In such cases, even if the lawyer does not accept a case, he shall not refuse to render legal
advice to the person concerned if only to the extent necessary to safeguard the latter's rights.

Duty to Give Legal Advice on the Rights of the Defenseless and the Oppressed

 This Rule is the only exception to the general rule that consultation creates a lawyer-client
relationship
 Even if no lawyer-client relationship is created, as when lawyer categorically refuses to accept a
case, a lawyer is still duty-bound to give legal advice to the defenseless and the oppressed in
protection of the latter’s rights

Rule 2.03 - A lawyer shall not do or permit to be done any act designed primarily to solicit legal
business.

Duty to Shun Vulgar Solicitation

 Law is a profession and not a trade

 The lawyer degrades himself and his profession who stoops to and adopts the practices of
mercantilism by advertising his services or offering them to the public

Practice of Law is Not a Business

 It is a profession in which duty to public service, not money, is the primary consideration
 The gaining of a livelihood should be a secondary consideration

Practice of Law distinguished from a Business

Primary characteristics which distinguish the legal profession from business are:

1. A duty of public service, of which the emolument is a byproduct, and in which one may attain the
highest eminence without making much money.
2. A relation as an "officer of court" to the administration of justice involving thorough sincerity,
integrity, and reliability.

3. A relation to clients in the highest degree fiduciary.

4. A relation to colleagues at the bar characterized by candor, fairness, and unwillingness to resort to
current business methods of advertising and encroachment on their practiThuce, or dealing directly with
their clients.

Dignified Solicitation Allowed

 It must be compatible with the dignity of the legal profession.

 Thus, the use of simple signs stating the name or names of the lawyers, the office and residence
address and fields of practice, as well as advertisement in legal periodicals bearing the same
brief data, are permissible

Good Reputation as the Best Advertisement

 The most effective advertisement is the establishment of a well-merited reputation for

professional capacity and fidelity to trust.

Ambulance Chasing

 One seeking out persons and directing them to an attorney in consideration of a percentage of
the recovery.

Rule 2.04 - A lawyer shall not charge rates lower than those customarily prescribed unless the
circumstances so warrant

Duty to Shun Cut-Throat Rates

 Where legal services are not commensurately compensated, the legal work will align itself with
the inferior pay
 The quality and standard of legal services would suffer if lawyers and law firms were to engage
in cut-throat competition; that is by lowering legal fees to attract paying clients.

Doctrines

 The Code of Professional Responsibility provides that a lawyer in making known his legal
services shall use only true, honest, fair, dignified and objective information or statement of
facts. He is not supposed to use or permit the use of any false, fraudulent, misleading,
deceptive, undignified, self-laudatory or unfair statement or claim regarding his qualifications or
legal services. Nor shall he pay or give something of value to representatives of the mass media
in anticipation of, or in return for, publicity to attract legal business. Prior to the adoption of the
code of Professional Responsibility, the Canons of Professional Ethics had also warned that
lawyers should not resort to indirect advertisements for professional employment, such as
furnishing or inspiring newspaper comments, or procuring his photograph to be published in
connection with causes in which the lawyer has been or is engaged or concerning the manner of
 their conduct, the magnitude of the interest involved, the importance of the lawyer's position,
and all other like self-laudation (Ulep vs. Legal Clinic, 223 SCRA 378 (1993).
 Hence, lawyers are prohibited from soliciting cases for the purpose of gain, either personally or
through paid agents or brokers. Such actuation constitutes malpractice, a ground for
disbarment. Rule 2.03 should be read in connection with Rule 1.03 of the CPR which provides
that lawyer, shall not for any corrupt motive or interest, encourage any suit or proceeding or
delay any man’s cause. This rule proscribes “ambulance chasing” (the solicitation of almost any
kind of legal business by an attorney, personally or through an agent in order to gain
employment) as a measure to protect the community from barratry and champerty (Linsangan
vs. Tolentino, A.C. No. 6672 (2009).
 It is undeniable that the advertisement in question was a flagrant violation by the respondent of
the ethics of his profession, it being a brazen solicitation of business from the public. Section 25
of Rule 127 expressly provides among other things that "the practice of soliciting cases at law for
the purpose of gain, either personally or thru paid agents or brokers, constitutes malpractice." It
is highly unethical for an attorney to advertise his talents or skilla s a merchant advertises his
wares. Law is a profession and not a trade. The lawyer degrades himself and his profession who
stoops to and adopts the practices of mercantilism by advertising his services or offering them
to the public(Director of Religious Affairs vs Bayot, A.C No. 1117 ( 1944).