B3: Advertising and Promotion

3.1 Subject to rules 3.2 and 3.5, you shall be entitled to advertise and promote your services in any way you think fit.

3.2 You shall not make a direct or indirect approach whether verbal or written to any person whom you know or ought reasonably to know to be the client of another regulated person with the intention to solicit business from that person.

3.3 Rule 3.2 shall not preclude the general circulation (being circulation to a group of persons, including bodies corporate, who can be categorised by a common description) of material promoting your services whether or not the persons to whom it is directed are established clients.

3.4 No-one shall be in breach of this rule 3 by reason only of his claim to be a specialist in any particular field of law or legal practice, provided that:

(a) the onus of proof that any such claim is justified shall be on the person making it; and

(b) any advertisement or promotional material issued by or on behalf of any person making any such claim shall otherwise conform to the requirements of rule 3.5.

3.5 Any advertisement or promotional material issued by you or on your behalf or any promotional activity by you or on your behalf shall be decent and shall not:

(a) contain any inaccuracy or misleading statement;

(b) be of such nature or character or be issued or done by such means as may reasonably be regarded as bringing the profession into disrepute;

(c) identify any client or item of his business without the prior written consent of the client; or

(d) be defamatory or illegal.

3.6 Any advertisement, promotional material or promotional activity of or by you (whether or not you are named or referred to therein) and any advertisement, promotional material or promotional activity of or by a third party which relates to your services shall be presumed to have been issued or promoted with your authority.

3.7.1 Where an advertisement or promotional material or activity of or by you, or by a third party which relates to your services, is deemed by the Council to contravene any of these rules, the Council may by way of notice duly given to you require you forthwith, or from such date as the notice may stipulate, to withdraw, terminate or cancel the advertisement or promotional material or activity as the case may require and not to repeat the same during the currency of the notice.

3.7.2 It shall be your duty to comply with any notice duly given to you under this rule 3.7. If you are aggrieved by the terms of any such notice you may, within 14 days of the date thereof, make written representations concerning that notice to the Council, which shall, within two months of the receipt of such representations, either confirm or withdraw such notice; provided that should the Council neither confirm nor withdraw such notice within the two month period, that notice shall be deemed to have been withdrawn at the expiry of that period.