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| Boston Bar Association | |
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BBA Endorses Customary Practice Statement Re: Third-Party Legal Opinions Following a presentation by Michelle Basil of Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP, Co-Chair of the BBA Business Law Section's Legal Opinions Committee, the Council unanimously voted to endorse a Statement on the Role of Customary Practice in the Preparation and Understanding of Third-Party Legal Opinions. Legal opinions that lawyers give to non-clients in business transactions are known as third-party legal opinions. These opinions are prepared and understood in accordance with the customary practice of lawyers who regularly give or review them. Customary practice permits an opinion giver and an opinion recipient to have common understandings about an opinion without stating them in the opinion. The goal of a formal Statement on the Role of Customary Practice in the Preparation and Understanding of Third-Party Legal Opinions is to confirm in a short, simple statement that customary practice is the starting place for evaluating the (i) sufficiency of the opinion giver's diligence and (ii) the meaning of the words in the opinion. Once it is established that customary practice is the starting place, then all the descriptions of customary practice contained in various bar association statements, etc. become relevant to consideration of these issues. By endorsing the Statement, the BBA is once again out front on cutting edge efforts to improve legal opinion practice. Such was the case when the Council voted to endorse a streamlined form of closing opinion letter in September 2005. |