Group Legal Services for Trade Associations

This Article will examine the goals of the Canons of Professional Ethics in this trade association context, noting the pre-Button limitations on the representation of members of such associations, and analyzing the possible impact of the three cases on the development of group legal services in this area. Hopefully, the perspective gained from such an examination may prove useful in the difficult task immediately confronting the legal profession: reformulation of the Canons to bring them into conformity with Button, BRT and UMW while minimizing, on the one hand, the loss of those traditional conceptions which have continuing value and validity, and maximizing, on the other, the utility of the Canons as general guidelines to ethical conduct.