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Ill. RPC 7.1

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Rule 7.1 Communications Concerning a Lawyer’s Services

Article VIII: Rules of Professional Conduct

← Previous Rule 6.5: Nonprofit and Court-annexed Limited Legal Services Programs Next → Rule 7.2: Advertising

Rule Text

A lawyer shall not make a false or misleading communication about the lawyer or the lawyer’s services. A communication is false or misleading if it contains a material misrepresentation of fact or law, or omits a fact necessary to make the statement considered as a whole not materially misleading.

Amendment history: Adopted July 1, 2009, effective January 1, 2010.

Plain-English Summary (for reference only — not a substitute for the rule text above)

This summary is not the rule. The rule text controls.

Lawyers must be honest in all their ads and communications about their services. This means they cannot lie, but they also cannot tell a half-truth that leaves out important details. If leaving something out would cause a reasonable person to get the wrong idea, that counts as misleading even if nothing said was technically false.

One common example is when a lawyer advertises past wins. Saying "I won a $1 million case" might be true, but it could give people false hope that they will get the same result. Every case is different, and ads that suggest otherwise can be considered misleading. Adding a disclaimer that past results do not guarantee future outcomes can help avoid this problem.

Lawyers also cannot make vague claims that their services or fees are better than other lawyers without having real facts to back that up. If a claim sounds specific enough that a reader would believe it was proven, the lawyer needs to actually be able to prove it.

Committee Notes

[1] This Rule governs all communications about a lawyer’s services, including advertising permitted by Rule 7.2. Whatever means are used to make known a lawyer’s services, statements about them must be truthful.

[2] Truthful statements that are misleading are also prohibited by this Rule. A truthful statement is misleading if it omits a fact necessary to make the lawyer’s communication considered as a whole not materially misleading. A truthful statement is also misleading if there is a substantial likelihood that it will lead a reasonable person to formulate a specific conclusion about the lawyer or the lawyer’s services for which there is no reasonable factual foundation.

[3] An advertisement that truthfully reports a lawyer’s achievements on behalf of clients or former clients may be misleading if presented so as to lead a reasonable person to form an unjustified expectation that the same results could be obtained for other clients in similar matters without reference to the specific factual and legal circumstances of each client’s case. Similarly, an unsubstantiated comparison of the lawyer’s services or fees with the services or fees of other lawyers may be misleading if presented with such specificity as would lead a reasonable person to conclude that the comparison can be substantiated. The inclusion of an appropriate disclaimer or qualifying language may preclude a finding that a statement is likely to create unjustified expectations or otherwise mislead the public.

[4] See also Rule 8.4(e) for the prohibition against stating or implying an ability to influence improperly a government agency or official or to achieve results by means that violate the Rules of Professional Conduct or other law.

Adopted July 1, 2009, effective January 1, 2010; amended Oct. 15, 2015, eff. Jan. 1, 2016.

← Previous Rule 6.5: Nonprofit and Court-annexed Limited Legal Services Programs Next → Rule 7.2: Advertising

Cross-References

Referenced By (3)

Ill. RPC Rule 7.5 Ill. RPC Rule 7.4 Ill. RPC Rule 7.2

Bluebook Citation

Ill. RPC 7.1

This Rule Set

View All Ill. RPC Rules

Last updated: October 2026

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