Full opinion text
Opinion MOSK, J. No issue in recent years has generated more controversy among members of the bar than the asserted right of attorneys to publicize their skills and services. And few aspects of the legal system have drawn more public attention than the mounting cost of legal assistance, particularly to middle income persons. The two concerns converge in this case, as we review a recommendation of the Disciplinary Board of the State Bar that petitioners Leonard D. Jacoby and Stephen Z. Meyers, the founders of a low cost legal clinic, be suspended from the practice of law for 45 days primarily because they are alleged to have solicited clients through media interviews in violation of former rule 2 of the Rules of Professional Conduct. Petitioners contend, inter alia, that former rule 2 violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution as incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment. We do not reach this broad contention, but hold rather that former rule 2 could not constitutionally be applied to prohibit an attorney from cooperating in the publication of a news article or broadcast on a newsworthy topic, even when the attorney himself is the subject. Accordingly, the proceedings must be dismissed. The facts are not in dispute. Petitioner Meyers was admitted to the bar in 1967, and petitioner Jacoby in 1968. In 1972 petitioners opened a law office called the Legal Clinic of Jacoby and Meyers, in an avowed effort to provide low cost legal services to that large segment of the population unable to meet the indigency standards of legal aid programs but not affluent enough to retain most law firms. Petitioners instituted a number of cost-saving measures in the operation of their clinic, including extensive use of paralegal assistants and part-time specialists; charging a flat $15 initial consultation fee; location in a storefront rather than in a more traditional office building; and concentration on simple but recurrent legal problems susceptible of resolution by standardized techniques. News of petitioners’ plans attracted the attention of a statewide consumer organization president, who decided to publicize the legal clinic concept. He hosted an open house at the clinic and invited representatives of the news media. Petitioners appeared and responded to questions. Subsequently, petitioners participated in a number of interviews initiated by news reporters interested in the legal clinic scheme. A sample stoiy resulting from one of these interviews is reprinted in the margin. As there illustrated, the typical article recounted the difficulty of delivering low cost legal services to the middle class and examined some of the procedures used by the clinic to resolve that problem, often comparing fees charged by Jacoby and Meyers for certain standard services with those generally charged by more customary law firms. Because of the open house, the interviews, and the use of the name “Legal Clinic,” the State Bar initiated disciplinary proceedings against petitioners. Petitioners called a press conference to discuss the charges against them, and at the conference issued a press kit as background material for the media representatives. Included in the kit were an explanation of the purpose of the clinic and brief biographies of its staff attorneys; a comparative fee schedule setting forth the fees charged by the clinic and the former suggested minimum fee schedules of local bar associations; favorable responses from clients to questionnaires sent out by petitioners; letters of support from various attorneys and legislators; and copies of correspondence between petitioners and the State Bar. Petitioners subsequently gave additional interviews resulting in news articles similar to those already described, except that the later articles also reported the State Bar accusations. The State Bar then amended the allegations against petitioners to include charges based on the press kit and the later interviews. At no time did petitioners pay for the publication of any of the articles written about them, nor are they charged with directly soliciting business from any identifiable client. On these facts the local administrative committee found that petitioners’ conduct in publicizing their legal clinic, the expertise of its personnel, and the fees they charge, was “principally directed” to generating business for their law firm. But the committee also found that “In doing so, [petitioners] honestly believed that the financial success of their said law firm was necessary to prove the practicability of the ‘legal clinic’ concept they claimed to have originated or been the first to implement.” The committee, by a two-to-one vote, concluded that petitioners violated former rule 2 both by their media contacts and by their use of the “assumed and/or misleading name” of the Legal Clinic of Jacoby and Meyers. The committee further concluded, however, that petitioners’ conduct did not involve moral turpitude, dishonesty, or corruption. (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 6106.) The disciplinary board adopted almost verbatim the findings and conclusions of the committee, and recommended that petitioners be suspended from the practice of law for 45 days. Four members of the board dissented, and would have dismissed the charges. As will appear, wé are of the opinion that the finding that petitioners’ conduct was principally directed to solicitation of clients, and the conclusion that it may therefore be proscribed under former rule 2, are not supportable in light of recent decisions of this court and the United States Supreme Court sharply restricting governmental regulation of constitutionally protected speech. Before reaching the solicitation charges, we discuss briefly the allegation that petitioners practiced under an assumed or misleading name. This charge is based on section (a), subdivision (3), of former rule 2, which specified that the only permissible “sign” for a lawyer to use was one “disclosing his name or the name of his law firm, and the word ‘attorney,’ ‘attorney at law,’ ‘counselor at law,’ ‘lawyer,’ or ‘law office,’ or, if a patent lawyer, ‘patent lawyer.’ ” Inasmuch as petitioners call their firm a “legal clinic” rather than a “law office,” their conduct is arguably prohibited under a strict reading of the rule. It is apparent, however, that this portion of rule 2 principally served the purpose of preventing deception, and the State Bar has not shown that the term “legal clinic” is in any sense deceiving. Indeed, nowhere in the State Bar’s 210-page brief is the issue even mentioned. Viewing the matter without such assistance, we find it difficult to comprehend why “legal clinic” is more misleading than the permissible designation of “law office.” In petitioners’ circumstance, “legal clinic” may actually be more descriptive than “law office” because of the significant differences between petitioners’ operation and a more traditional law practice. Certainly the use of “legal clinic” appears less misleading than the widespread custom of retaining in the title of a law firm the name of partners long since deceased. The triviality of the misleading name charge against petitioners is further emphasized by two recent bar association developments. The American Bar Association (ABA) has announced it is funding an $80,000 “experimental, innovative legal clinic program for the delivery of legal services.” (ABA press release, Oct. 3, 1975.) And the State Bar itself, in proposed new rules on advertising now under consideration, gives as an example of a permissible title for a law firm, “Legal Clinic of Doe and Roe.” (Proposed rule 2-102, subd. (B)(3)(b).) Under these circumstances we conclude that petitioners have committed no professional misconduct in entitling their office, “Legal Clinic of Jacoby and Meyers.” We turn now to the solicitation issue. Surprisingly, the precise question before us—whether a lawyer may be prohibited from participating in the preparation of a news article about himself—has rarely arisen in reported decisions. The two principal opinions on point have reached conflicting results in slightly different factual contexts. In State v. Nichols (Fla. 1963) 151 So.2d 257, a lawyer was interviewed for a newspaper article which described the success of his firm, stated that hundreds of lawyers referred negligence cases to the firm, and related what other attorneys and judges said about the lawyer. In addition, the attorney contributed several quotations praising the expertise of his associates and investigators. The Florida State Bar recommended that the attorney be disciplined for violating a canon prohibiting self-laudation; but the Florida Supreme Court, weighing the value of the news article as a whole against its self-laudatoiy aspects, exonerated the attorney. A contrary conclusion was reached by a New York intermediate appellate court in In re Connelly (1963) 18 App. Div.2d 466 [240 N.Y.S.2d 126]), which censured members of a law firm who cooperated in a Life Magazine article about the firm. Neither Nichols nor Connelly dealt at any length with possible First Amendment implications. Three California disciplinary cases have involved lawyers and the press, but none is directly on point. In Bushman v. State Bar (1974) 11 Cal.3d 558 [113 Cal.Rptr. 904, 522 P.2d 312], we imposed discipline on an attorney who, among other offenses, sent numerous self-laudatory press releases to newspapers. In Millsberg v. State Bar (1971) 6 Cal.3d 65 [98 Cal.Rptr. 223, 490 P.2d 543], we publicly reproved an attorney for allowing a rental owners’ association to advertise to its members his services as its attorney. The only California case to discuss the First Amendment aspects of the solicitation ban was Belli v. State Bar (1974) 10 Cal.3d 824 [112 Cal.Rptr. 527, 519 P.2d 575]. In an opinion which will be discussed more fully below, we held that certain self-laudatory communications sent by an attorney to the media were constitutionally protected because they were designed to increase business for a lecture series and educational seminars rather than to solicit clients, while other literature, including an endorsement of a brand of liquor, was properly the subject of discipline. As none of the cited cases appears to be controlling, we proceed to analyze petitioners’ contentions in terms of general First Amendment law. As in all instances in which a statute or governmental regulation is subjected to a challenge on such ground, if petitioners can show the recommended discipline infringes on First Amendment rights the State Bar will have the burden of demonstrating that the regulation in question is necessary to further a compelling state interest. (N. A. A. C. P. v. Button (1963) 371 U.S. 415, 438 [9 L.Ed.2d 405, 421, 83 S.Ct. 328].) The First Amendment protects the freedom of expression of all citizens, including lawyers. Petitioners have a right not only to respond to questions from the media on important issues, but also a right to seek out the media to express their views. Insofar as the present proceedings effectively inhibit petitioners from speaking their mind on an important issue—the delivery of inexpensive legal services to middle income persons—they infringe on important First Amendment rights. Moreover, just as petitioners have a right to air their beliefs, society has a right to hear them. As the United States Supreme Court has consistently held, “the protection afforded [by the First Amendment] is to the communication, to its source and to its recipients both.” (Va. Pharmacy Bd. v. Va. Consumer Council (1976) 425 U.S. 748, 756 [48 L.Ed.2d 346, 355, 96 S.Ct. 1817] [hereinafter Board of Pharmacy]; see also Kleindienst v. Mandel (1972) 408 U.S. 753, 762-764 [33 L.Ed.2d 683, 691-693, 92 S.Ct. 25761; Stanley v. Georgia (1969) 394 U.S. 557, 564 [22 L.Ed.2d 542, 549, 89 S.Ct. 1243]; Lamont v. Postmaster General (1965) 381 U.S. 301, 308 [14 L.Ed.2d 398, 403, 85 S.Ct. 1493] (Brennan, J„ concurring).) This societal interest runs to the heart of the First Amendment, a major purpose of which is to promote free discussion of governmental affairs. (Buckley v. Valeo (1976) 424 U.S. 1, 14 [46 L.Ed.2d 659, 684-685, 96 S.Ct. 612].) Among those affairs is the operation of the legal system. Yet particularly since the New York decision in Connelly, the threat of discipline has in many cases deterred lawyers from talking to journalists, and hence has prevented laymen from learning important facts about the legal profession. While this aura of secrecy may create a mystique about lawyers, surely it is preferable to encourage freedom of information: such knowledge is “helpful, perhaps indispensable, to the formation of an intelligent opinion by the public on how well the legal system is working and whether it should be regulated or even altered.” (In re Bates, supra, 555 P.2d 640, 648 (dis. opn. by Holohan, J.).) At stake, in short, is not only petitioners’ freedom of expression but the right of the public to information needed for appraisal and regulation. The State Bar does not deny the First Amendment rights entailed in petitioners’ discussions of legal services, but contends that petitioners may be disciplined because their communications with the media were directed more towards attracting clients than discussing the concept of a legal clinic. Primary reliance for this position is placed on Belli v. State Bar (1974) supra, 10 Cal.3d 824. As will be seen, however, under the rationale of Belli and a subsequent United States Supreme Court decision petitioners’ communications cannot be construed as primarily commercial solicitation. Belli concerned the attempts of an attorney, chiefly through his agent, to publicize some of his extra-legal activities. The State Bar recommended discipline because the agent, in seeking lecture dates and appearances on the air waves for the attorney, distributed publicity praising his client’s talents as an attorney, the agent arranged for his endorsement of a brand of liquor, and the attorney himself advertised the “Belli seminars.” We held that only two items were proper subjects of discipline—the liquor advertisement and certain language in the seminar publicity which suggested that various celebrities who were former clients of the attorney planned to pay homage to him. All the other communications were protected by the First Amendment, we held, because they were directed towards facilitating the success of protected activities—the lectures and the seminars. Because of this praiseworthy purpose, even the most extravagant language—e.g., describing the attorney as the “King of Torts”—was not a cause for discipline. We declared, “when the bar seeks to discipline an attorney for a communication incident to protected speech, in addition to showing that the attorney intended by his communication to generate business for his law practice [citations], it must demonstrate that the communication or a part thereof was principally directed toward this end. We build into this construction of rule 2 a belief that the speech interest prevails over the desire of the bar to minimize solicitation of legal business both because the former is anchored in the federal Constitution and because it is properly accorded a fundamental position within that document.” (Fn. omitted; italics in original.) {Id., at p. 833.) Despite this strong First Amendment statement, the State Bar urges a narrow construction of the principles affirmed in Belli, asserting that a communication is outside the scope of First Amendment protection if it contains any language that can objectively be viewed as being directed towards the solicitation of clients. Whatever vitality this viewpoint might once have had is now negated by the Supreme Court’s decision in Bigelow v. Virginia (1975) 421 U.S. 809 [44 L.Ed.2d 600, 95 S.Ct. 2222]. In Bigelow the high court struck down Virginia’s attempt to prohibit a newspaper advertisement that announced the availability of legal New York abortions and detailed whom to contact in order to obtain such services. In response to the state’s argument that the advertisement was merely unprotected commercial speech—similar to the State Bar’s contentions herein—the court declared: “The advertisement published in appellant’s newspaper did more than simply propose a commercial transaction. It contained factual material of clear ‘public interest.’ Portions of its message . . . involve the exercise of the freedom of communicating information and disseminating opinion. [1] Viewed in its entirety, the advertisement conveyed information of potential interest and value to a diverse audience—not only to readers possibly in need of the services offered, but also to those with a general curiosity about, or genuine interest in, the subject matter or the law of another State and its development, and to readers seeking reform in Virginia. . . . Thus, in this case, appellant’s First Amendment interests coincided with the constitutional interests of the general public.” (Fn. omitted; italics added.) {Id., at p. 822 [44 L.Ed.2d at p. 612]; see also State v. Nichols (Fla. 1963) supra, 151 So.2d 257, 259 (holding that some of the attorney’s answers to the reporter’s questions might, “[i]f read in isolation,” be construed as self-laudatory, “but not so if read in context”).) The high court in Bigelow was thus willing to overlook some of the “commercial” language in the abortion advertisement in order to protect the advertisement’s underlying theme. The court held, in effect, that if any valid purpose can be found in a message, the communication cannot constitutionally be prohibited absent a compelling state interest. Such a test is necessary to afford breathing room for First Amendment freedoms, particularly in the present context. If the State Bar’s interpretation of Belli were adopted, a lawyer speaking to the media would be compelled to measure his every word. As even the most articulate political candidates have not infrequently discovered, slips of the tongue and remarks later reconsidered are not uncommon in press interviews. While this fact of life has rarely discouraged office seekers, it might have a more sobering effect on attorneys, whose gaffes could cause them not mere political embarrassment but loss of livelihood. Lawyers by training are a cautious breed. If they are aware that any statements they make to the press will be scrutinized line by line by bar authorities in order to uncover a subtle intent to solicit business, their reaction will be predictable: they will avoid the “prohibited zone” by simply declining press interviews altogether. (See Speiser v. Randall (1958) 357 U.S. 513, 526 [2 L.Ed.2d 1460, 1472-1473, 78 S.Ct. 1332]; Siegel v. Committee of Bar Examiners (1973) 10 Cal.3d 156, 175 [110 Cal.Rptr. 15, 514 P.2d 967].) Such a result is unacceptable in a free society. Accordingly, we synthesize Belli and Bigelow by concluding that a communication is not “primarily directed” toward solicitation unless, viewed in its entirety, it serves no discernible purpose other than the attraction of clients. If a legitimate purpose appears on the face of a publication or in the demonstrated motivation of the attorney, the publication must receive at least prima facie First Amendment protection. Applying this test to the present case, we find that petitioners’ statements, whether viewed objectively or subjectively, have constitutionally protected value. To be sure, some of their remarks taken in isolation might be deemed indirect solicitation, such as their disclosure in interviews of comparative fees and their use of client responses to questionnaires in the press kit. Nevertheless, those communications must be viewed in the overall context of petitioners’ statements to the media, which served the legitimate purposes of delineating the need for low cost legal services for middle income persons and of explaining and demonstrating that the legal clinic was a pragmatic method of providing those services. In this connection the State Bar emphasizes that petitioners continued to engage in interviews even though previous articles assertedly “focused upon them rather than upon the general concept of the legal clinic.” The argument appears to rest on the dubious assumption that the First Amendment protects only abstract discussion, a position long since refuted by the Supreme Court: “abstract discussion is not the only species of communication which the Constitution protects; the First Amendment also protects vigorous advocacy, certainly of lawful ends, against governmental intrusion.” (N. A. A. C. P. v. Button (1963) supra, 371 U.S. 415, 429 [9 L.Ed.2d 405, 416].) To suggest that petitioners should have somehow taken steps to insure that the articles avoid focusing on them is to escape from reality. As the reporters undoubtedly realized, a reader seeking information on low cost legal services would not be particularly interested in abstract philosophizing on the topic of legal clinics by two obscure young attorneys, however articulate they might be. Rather, such a reader would want to know what a clinic is, how it works, how much it costs, and to what extent it might benefit him personally. As these petitioners apparently operated the only legal clinic in Los Angeles, the articles inevitably centered on their practice. But that circumstance should not be permitted to obscure the fact that the articles, and petitioners’ cooperation in their publication, served a legitimate purpose in bringing an important issue to the public eye. Moreover, on the record before us it is undeniable that petitioners were motivated by more than a desire to generate business for their law firm. The local committee specifically found that petitioners’ conduct “was intended by them to publicize a belief they honestly held that there is an unmet demand by low and middle income persons for competent legal services in certain areas of the law at reasonable cost. ...” In its sole revision of the committee’s findings, the disciplinary board modified that statement by adding the words, “in part.” Even with that unexplained addition, the disciplinary board’s conclusion can only be read as an affirmation that petitioners were at least partly motivated by a desire to raise a vital public issue. That petitioners may also have suspected the resulting publicity could attract clients does not strip their communications of First Amendment protection. To hold otherwise would subject to motivational scrutiny lawyers who write books about their major cases—all of which, by their accounts, resulted in glorious victories, or at least valiant defeats; attorneys who stand as candidates in political campaigns which have little chance of success but inevitably make their names known to the public; and lawyers who participate in community activities likely to engender favorable publicity. But even to the extent that petitioners’ statements could be interpreted as subtle solicitation, they still have First Amendment value. This is demonstrated in a line of Supreme Court cases involving group legal services, and in a recent decision on prescription drug price advertising. Beginning with N. A. A. C. P. v. Button (1963) supra, 371 U.S. 415, the high court, in a series of decisions, rejected “the contention that ‘solicitation’ is wholly outside the area of freedoms protected by the First Amendment.” (Id., at p. 429 [9 L.Ed.2d at pp. 415-416].) In Button, the court upheld the right of NAACP attorneys to solicit plaintiffs for desegregation suits. While the court emphasized the constitutionally significant goals sought by the civil rights organization, it did not rest its decision exclusively on those grounds. In three subsequent decisions, the court ruled that labor unions had the right to direct their members to certain attorneys to handle job-related personal injury claims. (United Transportation Union v. MichiganBar(1971)401 U.S. 576[28L.Ed.2d339,91 S.Ct. 1076]; Mine Workers v. Illinois Bar Assn. (1967) 389 U.S. 217 [19 L.Ed.2d 426, 88 S.Ct. 353]; Railroad Trainmen v. Virginia Bar (1964) 377 U.S. 1 [12 L.Ed.2d 89, 84 S.Ct. 1113, 11 A.L.R.3d 1196].) Although clients in these cases were solicited to file lawsuits involving economic rather than political issues, the court declared, “the First Amendment does not protect speech and assembly only to the extent it can be characterized as political.” (Mine Workers, supra, 389 U.S. at p. 223 [19 L.Ed.2d at p. 431].) In the most recent of these legal services cases Justice Black summarized, “the common thread running through our decisions ... is that collective activity undertaken to obtain meaningful access to the courts is a fundamental right within the protection of the First Amendment. However, that right would be a hollow promise if courts could deny associations of workers or others the means of enabling their members to meet the costs of legal representation.” (United Transportation Union, supra, 401 U.S. atpp. 585-586 [28 L.Ed.2d at p. 347].) The decisions thus stand for the proposition that an indirect denial of access to the courts, no less than a direct prohibition, is subject to First Amendment scrutiny. Of course, the cited cases dealt only with restraints on group legal services, but it would be difficult to formulate a rationale so limiting the meaning of the decisions. As one commentator has pointed out, the cases focused “not on the right of attorneys to advertise and solicit but rather on the importance of ensuring that those aggrieved receive information regarding their legal rights and the appropriate means of effectuating them, . . . Viewed in such a context, advertising and solicitation conducted by private attorneys deserves, if anything, more protection than that by attorneys affiliated with organizations like the NAACP or the United Mine Workers. Potential clients who are so dispersed, disorganized, and powerless that they cannot organize their own litigation programs would seem to be in even greater need of information regarding their legal rights than those who at least possess the strength required to generate their own litigation activities.” (Fns. omitted; italics in original.) (Note, Advertising, Solicitation and the Profession’s Duty to Make Legal Counsel Available (1972) 81 Yale L.J. 1181, 1186.) Put more succinctly, “It would make no sense for an individual’s right of access to legal action to cease to exist, or not to come into existence at all, at the moment he ceases to belong to a group.” (Freeman & Bass, P.A. v. State of N.J. Comn. of Invest. (D.N.J. 1973) 359 F.Supp. 1053, 1057, vacated on other grounds (3d Cir. 1973) 486 F.2d 176; see also Comment, Solicitation by the Second Oldest Profession: Attorneys and Advertising (1973) 8 Harv.Civ. Rights-Civ.Lib.L.Rev. 77, 87.) More recently, the Board of Pharmacy decision also demonstrates that solicitation is not without First Amendment value. There the Supreme Court struck down a Virginia law prohibiting pharmacies from advertising prices for prescription drugs, and in so doing laid to rest the view that so-called “commercial speech” is beyond the protection of the First Amendment. (See, e.g., Valentine v. Chrestensen (1942) 316 U.S. 52 [86 L.Ed. 1262, 62 S.Ct. 920].) The court first disposed of the argument that an advertiser has no First Amendment rights because his interests are purely economic rather than political. Analogizing to economic confrontations between employers and employees, the court noted, “We know of no requirement that, in order to avail themselves of First Amendment protection, the parties to a labor dispute need address themselves to the merits of unionism in general or to any subject beyond their immediate dispute.” (Fn. omitted.) (425 U.S. at pp. 762-763 [48 L.Ed.2d at p. 359].) In addition to pointing out the rights of the advertiser, the court emphasized the First Amendment interests of society in general—in ensuring that resource allocation decisions in a free enterprise economy be made intelligently —and of the consumer in particular, in receiving information on how to order his life. As for the latter, “that interest may be as keen, if not keener by far, than his interest in the day’s most urgent political debate____ Those whom the suppression of prescription drug price information hits the hardest are the poor, the sick, and particularly the aged.” (Id., at p. 763 [48 L.Ed.2d at p. 359].) Restrictions on information about the legal profession affect an even broader range of citizens. A Missouri Bar Association survey showed, for example, that only 36 percent of the state’s residents had ever used a lawyer, compared to the 63 percent the survey concluded probably needed counsel. (Comment, Controlling Lawyers by Bar Associations and Courts (1970) 5 Harv.Civ. Rights-Civ.Lib.L.Rev. 301, 351.) Another survey in one city demonstrated that “the inability of persons to recognize legal problems increased as their socioeconomic status decreased.” (Ibid.) The First Amendment consumer interest articulated in Board of Pharmacy appears as important in the present case as it was there. The State Bar, however, points to two caveats in Board of Pharmacy and contends they undercut any First Amendment protection claimed by petitioners. In one footnote, the high court stressed that not all distinctions between commercial and noncommercial speech should be disregarded. There are differences between the two forms, the court noted: “The truth of commercial speech, for example, may be more easily verifiable by its disseminator than, let us say, news reporting or political commentary, in that ordinarily the advertiser seeks to disseminate information about a specific product or service that he himself provides and presumably knows more about than anyone else. Also, commercial speech may be more durable than other kinds. Since advertising is the sine qua non of commercial profits, there is little likelihood of its being chilled by proper regulation and forgone entirely.” (Id., at p. 772, fn. 24 [48 L.Ed.2d at p. 364].) Neither of these rationales applies to petitioners’ case. The greater objectivity and susceptibility of verification of commercial speech may justify certain restrictions regarding misrepresentation, but petitioners have not been charged with deliberately making any misleading statements. And while paid commercial advertising is unlikely to be chilled entirely by proper regulation, the type of conduct engaged in by petitioners—voluntary participation in media interviews—is likely to have been and may continue to be deterred by restrictions such as those the State Bar seeks to impose. The other caveat in Board of Pharmacy relied on by the State Bar concerns the issue of legal advertising itself. The court noted it was not deciding that issue, reasoning that “the distinctions, historical and functional, between professions, may require consideration of quite different factors. Physicians and lawyers, for example, do not dispense standardized products; they render professional services of almost infinite variety and nature, with the consequent enhanced possibility for confusion and deception if they were to undertake certain kinds of advertising.” (Italics deleted.) (Id., at p. 773, fn. 25 [48 L.Ed.2d at p. 365]; see also conc. opn. of Burger, C. J., at p. 774 [48 L.Ed.2d at p. 366].) It is important to articulate what this caveat does and does not signify. It does state that certain kinds of professional advertising may possibly be regulated—a matter now under consideration in the high court (see fn. 4, ante)—if a state can demonstrate that such regulation is necessary to effect an overriding governmental interest in preventing “confusion and deception.” But it cannot be construed to mean that commercial speech by attorneys is entirely beyond the scope of First Amendment protection; such a construction would be completely contrary to the holding and reasoning of the majority opinion. The footnote thus stands for the proposition that while the First Amendment values in commercial advertising remain constant regardless of the profession involved, the governmental regulatory interest may vary from profession to profession. In short, a “commercial speech” case can no longer be decided merely on the basis of labels; the First Amendment now demands an analysis of the competing interests. To summarize, under the foregoing decisions petitioners’ conduct must be viewed as discussion of an important issue rather than solicitation; but even to the extent their communications can be interpreted by some to be solicitation, they are still not beyond the pale of the First Amendment. In either case, the State Bar has the burden of demonstrating that the prohibition of petitioners’ contacts with news media is necessary to further a compelling state interest. Seeking to meet this heavy burden, the State Bar recounts in minute detail prior cases before this court in which attorneys who solicited business also defrauded, coerced, and frustrated the interests of their clients. The purport of this melancholy recital is summed up in one sentence: “Attorneys who commit acts of solicitation are prone to excesses.” Needless to say, such generalized reasoning is insufficient to override the significant First Amendment values asserted by petitioners. The State Bar fails to demonstrate either the absence of less restrictive alternatives in curbing such purported excesses; or the applicability of this parade of horrors to the type of activity engaged in by petitioners, i.e., participation in news interviews; or its relevance to the actual conduct of petitioners, who are obviously not accused of deception, fraud, misrepresentation, or any other actions damaging to their clients. A clearer analysis is therefore needed. We must consider the interests often advanced in support of advertising prohibitions. Assuming, without deciding, that such state interests may legitimize certain types of restrictions on attorney advertising, we must determine whether they also justify proscribing the type of conduct engaged in by petitioners here. Perhaps the primary state interest advanced in support of attorney advertising restrictions is prevention of fraud and misrepresentation. It is often argued that deception inevitably accompanies advertising and that some forms of attorney advertising are inherently misleading. (See, e.g., Board of Pharmacy, supra, 425 U.S. at pp. 774-775 [48 L.Ed.2d at pp. 365-366] (Burger, C. J., conc.).) A related contention is that if the restrictions are relaxed, lawyers will engage in “puffing,” i.e., exaggerating their abilities and what they can do for their clients. It can readily be seen, however, that such concerns relate at most to paid advertisements written by or at the direction of the attorney himself, and to direct .solicitation of clients by the attorney. The danger is not necessarily inherent in an attorney’s cooperation with the publication of a news story. In order for an attorney intentionally to mislead the public through a bona fide news article it would be necessary for him first to convince reporters and editors that he is newsworthy, then induce them to print what he relates without verification and hope the public accepts the tale at face value. To project this scenario as likely to occur requires a cynical view of both journalistic integrity and public gullibility. Journalists have never demonstrated a desire to serve as “cappers” or “runners” for attorneys: except in sensational cases or when performing a relatively unusual service—as here—attorneys are rarely “news.” Even if an attorney does manage to get his name in print or on the air, he does not have control over the content of the journalist's story; thus, any misstatements by the attorney can be checked by diligent reporters. In the present case, for example, most of the reporters writing about the legal clinic apparently verified important information given to them by petitioners before printing it, and some conducted further interviews to ascertain the quality of the services being offered. Also, it bears reiterating, the State Bar found no instance in which petitioners deliberately misrepresented facts to reporters or exaggerated their abilities in any way. Another argument often advanced against solicitation is that it may be associated with overreaching and high pressure tactics to acquire clients. Spectres of ambulance chasing and coercion of patients in hospital beds are often raised. Unfortunately such behavior does occasionally occur, and it is subject to discipline; but the concern is inapplicable to the conduct here shown. Insofar as former rule 2 has prevented overreaching, it has done so in its application to direct solicitation of clients by attorneys or their employees, not to indirect presentation through media interviews. It is sometimes argued that solicitation is “ ‘demoralizing to the ethical standards of [the] profession.’ ” (Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar (1975) 421 U.S. 773, 792 [44 L.Ed.2d 572, 588, 95 S.Ct. 2004], quoting from United States v. Oregon State Med. Soc. (1952) 343 U.S. 326, 336 [96 L.Ed. 978, 986, 72 S.Ct. 690].) This point is expressed in different ways: it is said solicitation robs the bar of dignity, or creates an atmosphere of commercialism rather than professionalism. However the argument is phrased, it is manifest that “the evil at which anti-advertising rules are aimed is the employment of commercial methods of obtaining business. The impropriety of paying for the publication of stories and photographs is not involved in bona fide news stories.” (Fns. omitted; italics in original.) (Note, Bar Restrictions on Dissemination of Information About Legal Services (1974) 22 UCLA L.Rev. 483, 512.) The dignity and morals of the bar will not be jeopardized—indeed, they are likely to be enchancgd—by the scrutiny of the press. Finally, it is argued that solicitation must be curtailed because it stirs up unnecessary or fraudulent litigation, a contention premised on the notion that “to avoid court congestion, discouragement of even legitimate claims must be tolerated in order to prevent the bringing of fraudulent or frivolous actions.” (Id., at p. 511.) To the extent that such an argument is plausible (see contra, N. A. A. C. P. v. Button (1963) supra, 371 U.S. 415, 439-444 [9 L.Ed.2d 405, 421-425]), it plainly is not germane here. While direct solicitation may increase the volume of lawsuits filed, there is no empirical data that attribute even a marginal increase in litigation to newspaper articles or television broadcasts. We conclude the State Bar is unable to meet its burden of demonstrating a compelling state interest in this instance. Accordingly, it may not constitutionally proscribe petitioners’ conduct. We reemphasize that although a portion of this opinion has discussed professional advertising, we do not decide that issue. But the State Bar cannot justify disciplinary proceedings against attorneys whose only “offense” was to exercise rights which are among the most precious to our citizenry—freedom of speech and freedom of the press. In this sensitive area we should beware of confusing innovation with impropriety. The proceedings against petitioners are dismissed. Tobriner, Acting C. J., Clark, J., Sullivan, J., and Wright, J., concurred. RICHARDSON, J. I respectfully dissent, being unable to agree either with the majority’s conclusion or the reasoning by which it is reached. In my view, the majority has ignored the explicit findings of fact of the disciplinary board, has both misstated and misapplied existing law on the subjects of professional advertising and client solicitation and, for purposes of ascertaining whether there has been client solicitation has enunciated a new standard which is not calculated to serve either the public or the legal profession. Because the majority’s factual recitation of the case is abbreviated, I develop somewhat more fully the background of this case as reflected in the record before us. In the latter part of 1972, under the name of “Meyers and Jacoby,” petitioners formed a law partnership in Beverly Hills which in December of that year moved its principal offices to Westwood. In January of 1973 the firm was expanded to include Mr. Mosten and the firm, now known as “Meyers, Jacoby & Mosten,” continues to practice in its Westwood office. In September 1972 Jacoby and Meyers opened a second office in Van Nuys which they designated “The Legal Clinic of Jacoby & Meyers” and, sometime later, established a third branch in the City of Inglewood, modelled on their Van Nuys office. The members of the law partnership were and are Meyers and Jacoby, each holding a 37'/2 percent interest, and Mosten with a 25 percent interest. The partnership thus conducts its practice in three locations under a single general partnership agreement and files a single federal income tax information return. The partners anticipated that their Westwood practice would continue as a general civil, business-oriented practice and that the Van Nuys and Inglewood offices would specialize in what they termed a “middle income” practice. They described this type of practice as one limited primarily to cases involving domestic relations, adoptions, bankruptcy and debtor-creditor affairs, personal injury, criminal, real estate, debt collections, wills, consumer, and administrative matters. (Parenthetically, it may be said that these kinds of cases describe a large portion of the practice of many California lawyers.) Occasionally, cases which originated in the Van Nuys office were referred to the firm’s Westwood office Prior to their opening in Van Nuys petitioners prepared and distributed a “prospectus” describing the function of their new office. Among others receiving the prospectus was a representative of a consumers organization, Consumer Legal Action Council (Council), who conceived a plan for conducting an “open house” in conjunction with the partners’ Van Nuys office. With the full knowledge and approval of Jacoby and Meyers the Council circulated among the major Los Angeles radio and television stations and the two principal Los Angeles daily newspapers a summary of the prospectus, and extended to numerous representatives of the press, radio and television a printed invitation to attend the open house. At approximately the same time, a printed folder entitled “A Message to Our Clients” was prepared by Jacoby and Meyers which described the services of their Van Nuys practice. Under the heading “What the Legal Clinic Is” the “message” declared: “The Legal Clinic of Jacoby & Meyers is the first of its kind .... People in the largest sector of our society—the middle income—must either do without lawyers and give up their rights or, when lawyers cannot be avoided, pay much more than they can afford. The Legal Clinic has, for the first time, adopted a common sense approach to providing high quality, low-cost legal services.” The “message” also contained a sample description of fees which petitioners proposed to charge. These included, among others, “dissolution of marriage in which there is no support, children, or property $100; uncontested dissolution with property settlement agreement (minimum) $250.” This “message” was distributed to members of the media and to other members of the public who attended the open house. During and following the open house, Jacoby and Meyers in interviews with two Los Angeles newspapers, and with a Los Angeles radio station, described their new Van Nuys office as a first of its kind, modelled after a medical clinic, charging low fees and using paralegals and part time specialists. During the radio interview Jacoby, referring to their practice, stated, “People will be assured ... of high quality legal services.” During the ensuing several months, both before and after the institution of the State Bar disciplinary proceedings, petitioners granted further interviews to the media, including a newspaper and national magazine. Jacoby, during the course of an interview on a Los Angeles radio station, discussed the Van Nuys practice, including the specific fees that the partners were charging and repeated the comment that “At the clinic ... the client is assured of quality at reduced rates.” Because of the extensive publicity generated by petitioners’ open house and use of the name “clinic,” a formal investigation was instituted by the State Bar on September 27, 1972. Sometime later, after a formal notice to show cause was issued, Jacoby and Meyers commenced a preplanned and carefully orchestrated publicity program. For the purpose of advising the public of the State Bar’s action, they called a press conference at which they distributed a 59-page “press packet,” or “press kit” containing material directed at the pending bar disciplinary proceeding. In a “Background” portion of their kit, and on the firm’s letterhead, petitioners described the success of their Van Nuys practice as “overwhelming, from all directions,” and reported that they had doubled their staff, had served 1,000 clients, that their Van Nuys office was now handling “about 1 % of all the divorces in Los Angeles County,” and that two Los Angeles newspapers, a national newspaper, a national magazine, “and numerous local and network radio and television stations have all carried favorable stories about its concept and operation.” Turning then to their accuser, the State Bar, petitioners in their press kit charged that the reason for the disciplinary investigation was “... that the Bar felt economically threatened by such a successful attempt at delivering high quality, low cost legal services.” Confidently anticipating victory, petitioners predicted that “. . . the courts will see the case for what it is—an attempt by a narrow self-interest group to muzzle its competitors.” The press packet contained more. After a biography describing the attorneys associated with the clinic, a detailed seven-page comparative fee schedule was included in which the fees charged by Jacoby and Meyers in the nine broad areas of their practice were compared with the minimum fee schedules adopted in 1970 and 1971 by the San Fernando Valley Bar Association and the Burbank Bar Association. On the prefatory page of the fee schedule petitioners pointedly observed that the fees of the associations “range generally from 40% to 250% higher than those currently charged by” petitioners. Following the fee comparisons, petitioners included in the packet a series of 10 “representative" but anonymous responses to a written questionnaire which Jacoby and Meyers had circulated among their clients. With other questions, the clients were asked if the services rendered by the firm’s paralegal staff and attorney were good, fair, or poor, and how clients compared the Jacoby and Meyers services with those of any other attorney whom they had previously consulted. Not surprisingly, the responses selected were all favorable to the petitioners’ office and, for the most part, unfavorable as to “other attorneys.” The packet also included copies of correspondence and pleadings regarding the State Bar proceeding, and a series of illustrated articles about their practice from the local and national newspapers and a national magazine. After the initial press conference Jacoby and Meyers accelerated their public relations campaign with individual press interviews transcribed for radio and television. On one nationally televised program Meyers was filmed in his office along with members of his staff. Among other things, he said: “We handle a great volume here. We’re open on evenings, we take Master Charge cards. What we’ve done is tried to make the office service oriented and to get away from the hangups that some attorneys have previously had ... so we’re happy to service domestic relations cases, divorces, bankruptcies, small claims court counselling, the kinds of things which other attorneys have traditionally not wanted to take.” Meyers continued in his television interview: “People have a general impression of attorneys charging too much. For example in a default divorce here in California where there’s no property or children, the simplest kind. In the San Fernando Valley, the charge is approximately three hundred and fifty to five hundred dollars. We would charge a hundred dollars for that. There’s little more in that other than some filling out of forms, some initial consultation to make sure that that’s what the person needs. It’s not so much that they couldn’t afford the three hundred and fifty dollars, but they weren’t you know, they weren’t getting three hundred fifty dollars worth of services. And we think ultimately the legal profession is in great disrepute right now. And one of the reasons is that attorneys are just charging too much for what they’re giving. And if they’re going to get back their respect, they have to get around that featherbedding in a way.'”- After the television program, and entirely unsolicitated, Meyers sent a transcript of his televised remarks to a Los Angeles newspaper reporter. During the same year a national magazine published an article coauthored by Meyers’ wife after Meyers had approved the galley proof. The illustrated article described the Van Nuys practice, and contained fee comparisons of that office and other unidentified Los Angeles law firms. Jacoby and Meyers prepared reprints of this article and forwarded them with copies of three Los Angeles newspaper articles to a New York newspaper when Meyers confirmed arrangements for a subsequent newspaper interview. Meyers issued a press release noting the State Bar evidentiary hearing and called the attention of media representatives again to articles about petitioners in newspapers and national magazines. The record reflects two additional significant factors. The generation of the extensive and sustained publicity regarding the Jacoby and Meyers practice resulted in a substantially greater volume of legal work at their Van Nuys office than that attracted to either their Westwood or Inglewood facilities. Petitioners stated that they depended on a substantial volume of legal business to permit the lower fees charged by them in their Van Nuys practice. The disciplinary board found that petitioners wilfully furnished detailed information concerning their law practice to members of the news media, and that although petitioners’ conduct was in part intended to publicize the general features of low cost “legal clinics” serving low and middle income persons, nevertheless petitioners’ detailed references to their own law practice, fee schedules and personnel were “intended to generate business for their said law practice, and said portions of said conduct and communications [to news media] were principally directed toward that end ” (Italics added.) Accordingly, the board concluded that petitioners “wilfully advertised their law practice and wilfully solicited professional employment,” in violation of rule 2 of the Rules of Professional Conduct of the State Bar of California. The Rules of Professional Conduct are formally adopted by the Board of Governors of the State Bar and become effective 60 days after approval by us. They are thereupon binding upon all members of the bar as provided in rule 1. Rule 2, section a, which Jacoby and Meyers are charged with violating, provided: “A member of the State Bar shall not solicit professional employment by advertisement or otherwise.” This rule was broad. Rule 2-102, its successor provision, is more specific: “A member of the State Bar shall not prepare, cause to be prepared, use or participate in the use of, any form of public communication that contains professionally self-laudatory statements calculated to attract lay clients; as used herein, ‘public communication’ includes, but is not limited to, communications by means of television, radio, motion picture, newspaper, magazine, or book.” Preliminarily, I voice considerable doubt about the majority’s definition of the principal question before us and the burden of proof herein presented. According to the majority, the narrow issue before us is “Whether a lawyer may be prohibited from participating in the preparation of a news article about himself.” I think the central issue is considerably broader, and may be more precisely stated: “Was the conduct of Jacoby and Meyers concerning publicity for their Van Nuys practice principally directed toward the generation of legal business thereby constituting the solicitation of professional employment in violation of rule 2?” Further, it is not at all clear that the majority is correct in its conclusion that the State Bar has the burden of demonstrating that the prohibition of petitioners’ contacts with the news media is necessary to further a compelling state interest. The authority cited for such a proposition is N.A.A.C.P. v. Button (1963) 371 U.S. 415, 438 [9 L.Ed.2d 405, 421, 83 S.Ct. 328], It is significant, however, that the same high court very much later in Bigelow v. Virginia (1975) 421 U.S. 809, 826 [44 L.Ed.2d 600, 614, 95 S.Ct. 2222], expresses a somewhat less rigid standard, observing that: “Advertising, like all public expression, may be subject to reasonable regulation that serves a legitimate public interest.” In considering the principal issue, contrary to the majority view, we are not in strange territory. Very recently in Belli v. State Bar (1974) 10 Cal.3d 824 [112 Cal.Rptr. 527, 519 P.2d 575], we announced principles which are dispositive of the matter before us. Belli, like the present case, involved the application of rule 2 within the context of a First Amendment challenge. In Belli we carefully distinguished communications relating to an attorney’s projected seminars and lecture series, finding them within the area of constitutional protections; but we left undisturbed the State Bar anti-solicitation rule in areas in which no free speech rights were affected. Furthermore, even in those situations involving some element of protected speech, we declared that discipline may be imposed if the bar shows that the attorney’s “communication or a part thereof was principally directed toward” (p. 833) the end of generating business for his law practice. Belli expressed a clear, easily understood and workable standard, namely, was the communication or part of it principally aimed at getting legal business or were other, more altruistic purposes the primary goal? With due respect, I suggest that the majority now announces a new rule, abandons clarity, and expands to the point of destruction the Belli standard, to the advantage of no one save Jacoby and Meyers. The majority concedes that “some of their [petitioners’] remarks taken in isolation might be deemed indirect solicitation.” In Belli we inquired whether the communication was “principally directed” at legal business. The majority now changes this standard, and we now are to be concerned only if the communication is “solely directed” to the same end, and are to determine if there is any discernible subjective purpose other than that which is prohibited. Such a precipitous retreat from the Belli standard is compelled, so argues the majority, because of First Amendment considerations enunciated by the Supreme Court in Bigelow v. Virginia, supra, 421 U.S. 809,1 respectfully suggest that the familiar Bigelow holding is clearly distinguishable, and its language is not useful to the majority. The ’’communication” which the Bigelow court “viewed in its entirety” was a single small newspaper advertisement. The “communication” before us, in stark contrast, constitutes a large volume of public expressions, spanning many months, including verbal and written announcements, press interviews, radio and television broadcasts, magazine and newspaper articles, circulars, pamphlets, press releases and news conferences. Only by extrapolating to the point of absurdity can one conclude from Bigelow that all statements and activities touching upon a particular issue must necessarily constitute, for First Amendment purposes, a single, multifaceted, conglomerate communication. In addition to the form of the communication, the Bigelow court found significance in the nature of the communication. Bigelow involved the prosecution of a newspaper editor for publishing an advertisement describing an out-of-state abortion clinic. The court expressly noted that New York’s abortion practices were not subject to regulation by Virginia, and that the latter had little or no legitimate interest in depriving its citizens of access to information about activities beyond its borders. (Bigelow v. Virginia, supra, at pp. 827-828 [44 L.Ed.2d at pp. 614-616].) The high court then said, “the fact that the statute was applied against. . . [the appellant] as publisher and editor of a newspaper, not against the advertiser or a referral agency or a practitioner . . . thus . . . [created] more serious First Amendment overtones.” (Id., at p. 828 [44 L.Ed.2d at p. 615], italics added.) The majority concludes that the Bigelow court “held in effect” that if any valid purpose can be found in a message, the communication cannot constitutionally be prohibited in the absence of a compelling state interest. To the contrary, the court specifically abstained from any such generalization, concluding that “We need not decide in this case the precise extent to which the First Amendment permits regulation of advertising that is related to activities the State may legitimately regulate ....” (421 U.S. at p. 825 [44 L.Ed.2d at p. 613].) While it is clear that both commercial and noncommercial varieties of speech are entitled to First Amendment protection, neither Bigelow nor Va. Pharmacy Bd. v. Va. Consumer Council (1976) 425 U.S. 748 [48 L.Ed.2d 346, 96 S.Ct. 1817], on which the majority relies, suggests that protected activities with a commercial aspect cannot be regulated. Indeed, the high court itself has expressly cautioned against any conclusion that speech with a heavy commercial component is entitled to precisely the same scrupulous deference which is properly accorded, for example, to political debate. Its words are clear: “... commercial speech may be more durable than other kinds. Since advertising is the sine qua non of commercial profits, there is little likelihood of its being chilled by proper regulation and [so] forgone entirely.” (Va. Pharmacy Bd. v. Va. Consumer Council, supra, at p. 772, fn. 24 [48 L.Ed.2d at p. 364].) Pharmacy Bd. invalidated a statute forbidding pharmacists from advertising the prices of prescription drugs. Acknowledging that in such a case the underlying activity—the practice of pharmacy—was subject to regulation by the state, the court held that in view of the standardized nature of prescription sales, a flat ban on price advertising was an impermissibly sweeping method of discouraging potential misconduct. (Va. Pharmacy Bd. v. Va. Consumer Council, supra, 425 U.S. at pp. 768, 773, fn. 25 [48 L.Ed.2d at pp. 362, 365].) The high court emphasized a very clear limitation of particular relevance to the matter before us, stating, “We stress that we have considered in this case the regulation of commercial advertising by pharmacists. Although we express no opinion as to other professions, the distinctions, historical and functional, between professions, may require consideration of quite different factors. Physicians and lawyers, for example, do not dispense standardized products; they render professional services of almost infinite variety and nature, with the consequent enhanced possibility for confusion and deception if they were to undertake certain kinds of advertising.” (Ibid.) The nature and extent of the difference alluded to presumably will be defined by the court when it decides Bates