37 CFR § 11.703 - Solicitation of clients.

---
identifier: "/us/cfr/t37/s11.703"
source: "ecfr"
legal_status: "authoritative_unofficial"
title: "37 CFR § 11.703 - Solicitation of clients."
title_number: 37
title_name: "Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights"
section_number: "11.703"
section_name: "Solicitation of clients."
chapter_name: "UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE"
subchapter_number: "A"
subchapter_name: "GENERAL"
part_number: "11"
part_name: "REPRESENTATION OF OTHERS BEFORE THE UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE"
positive_law: false
currency: "2026-04-05"
last_updated: "2026-04-05"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
authority: "5 U.S.C. 500; 15 U.S.C. 1123; 35 U.S.C. 2(b)(2), 32, 41; Sec. 1, Pub. L. 113-227, 128 Stat. 2114."
regulatory_source: "69 FR 35452, June 24, 2004, unless otherwise noted."
cfr_part: "11"
---


# 11.703 Solicitation of clients.

(a) “Solicitation” or “solicit” denotes a communication initiated by or on behalf of a practitioner or law firm that is directed to a specific person the practitioner knows or reasonably should know needs legal services in a particular matter and that offers to provide, or reasonably can be understood as offering to provide, legal services for that matter.

(b) A practitioner shall not solicit professional employment by live person-to-person contact when a significant motive for the practitioner's doing so is the practitioner's or law firm's pecuniary gain, unless the contact is with a:

(1) Practitioner;

(2) Person who has a family, close personal, or prior business or professional relationship with the practitioner or law firm; or

(3) Person who routinely uses for business purposes the type of legal services offered by the practitioner.

(c) A practitioner shall not solicit professional employment even when not otherwise prohibited by paragraph (b) of this section, if:

(1) The target of solicitation has made known to the practitioner a desire not to be solicited by the practitioner, or

(2) The solicitation involves coercion, duress, or harassment.

(d) This section does not prohibit communications authorized by law or ordered by a court or other tribunal.

(e) Notwithstanding the prohibitions in this section, a practitioner may participate with a prepaid or group legal service plan operated by an organization not owned or directed by the practitioner that uses live person-to-person contact to enroll members or sell subscriptions for the plan from persons who are not known to need legal services in a particular matter covered by the plan.

[86 FR 28467, May 26, 2021]