New Jersey’s Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics (ACPE) considered the following inquiry: May a lawyer insert, or pay an internet search engine company to insert, a hyperlink on the name of a competitor lawyer that will divert the user from the searched-for website owned by the competitor to the lawyer’s own law firm website.
The Committee found that purchasing keywords of a competitor lawyer’s name is not conduct that involves dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation. The websites of the keyword purchaser’s law firm and the competitor’s law firm will both appear in the resulting search. The keyword purchaser’s website ordinarily will appear as a paid or “sponsored” website, while the competitor lawyer’s website will appear in the organic results (unless the competitor has purchased the same keyword, in which case it will also appear as a paid or “sponsored” website). The user can choose which website to select and the search engine ordinarily will mark the keyword-purchased website as paid or “sponsored.” This is not deceptive, fraudulent, or dishonest conduct within the meaning of Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4(c).
The Committee further found that purchasing keywords of a competitor lawyer’s name is not conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.
The inquirer also asked whether a lawyer may pay Google to insert a hyperlink on a competitor lawyer’s name that diverts the user to the first lawyer’s website. The Committee found that surreptitiously redirecting a user from the competitor’s website to the lawyer’s own website is purposeful conduct intended to deceive the searcher for the other lawyer’s website. Such deceitful conduct violates Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4(c).
Accordingly, a New Jersey lawyer may purchase an internet search engine advertising keyword that is a competitor lawyer’s name, in order to display the lawyer’s own law firm website in the search results when a person searches for the competitor lawyer by name. A lawyer may not, however, insert, or pay the internet search engine company to insert, a hyperlink on the name or website URL of a competitor lawyer that will divert the user from the searched-for website to the lawyer’s own law firm website.
ACPE Opinion 735 is attached here –
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