Lead Opinion
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The Illinois State Bar Association and others filed this complaint to enjoin the United Mine-Workers of America, District 12, from engaging in certain practices alleged to constitute the unauthorized practice of law. The essence of the complaint was that the Union had employed a licensed attorney on a salary basis to represent any of its members who wished his services to prosecute workmen's compensation claims before the Illinois Industrial Commission. The trial court found from facts that were not in dispute that employment of an attorney by the association for this purpose did constitute unauthorized practice and permanently enjoined the Union from “[ejmploying attorneys on salary or retainer basis to represent its members with respect to Workmen’s Compensation claims and any and all other claims which they may have under the statutes and laws of Illinois.”
As in the Trainmen case, we deal here with a program that has been in successful operation for the Union members for decades. Shortly after enactment of the Illinois Workmen’s Compensation Statute
The undisputed facts concerning the operation of the Union’s legal department are these. The Union employs one attorney on a salary basis to represent members and their dependents in connection with claims for personal injury and death under the Illinois Workmen’s Compensation Act. The terms of the attorney’s employment, as outlined in a letter from the acting president of the Union to the present attorney, include the following
The applications for adjustment of claim are prepared by secretaries in the Union offices, and are then forwarded by the secretaries to the Industrial Commission.
The Illinois Supreme Court rejected petitioner’s contention that its members had a right, protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments, to join together and assist one another in the assertion of their legal rights by collectively hiring an attorney to handle their claims. That court held that our decision in Railroad Trainmen v. Virginia Bar, supra, protected plans under which workers were advised to consult specific attorneys, but did not extend to protect plans involving an explicit hiring of such attorneys by the union. The Illinois court recognized that in NAACP v. Button, supra, we also held protected a plan under which the attorneys recommended to members were actually paid by the association, but the Illinois court viewed the Button case as concerned chiefly with litigation that can be characterized as a form of political expression. We do not think our decisions in Trainmen and Button can be so narrowly limited. We hold that the freedom of speech, assembly, and petition guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth
We start with the premise that the rights to assemble peaceably and to petition for a redress of grievances are among the most precious of the liberties safeguarded by the Bill of Rights. These rights, moreover, are intimately connected, both in origin and in purpose, with the other First Amendment rights of free speech and free press. “All these, though not identical, are inseparable.” Thomas v. Collins,
The foregoing were the principles we invoked when we dealt in the Button and Trainmen cases with the right of an association to provide legal services for its members. That the States have broad power to regulate the practice of law is, of course, beyond question. See Trainmen, supra, at 6. But it is equally apparent that broad rules framed to protect the public and to preserve respect for the administration of justice can in their actual operation significantly impair the value of associational freedoms. Thus in Button, supra, we dealt with a plan under which the NAACP not only advised prospective
We think that both the Button and Trainmen cases are controlling here. The litigation in question is, of course, not bound up with political matters of acute social moment, as in Button, but the First Amendment does not protect speech and assembly only to the extent it can be characterized as political. “Great secular causes, with small ones, are guarded. The grievances for redress of which the right of petition was insured, and with it the right of assembly, are not solely religious or political ones. And the rights of free speech and a free press are not confined to any field of human interest.” Thomas v. Collins, supra, at 531. And of course in Trainmen, where the litigation in question was, as here, solely designed to compensate the victims of industrial accidents, we rejected the contention made in dissent, see
It has been suggested that the Union could achieve its goals by referring members to a specific lawyer or lawyers and then reimbursing the members out of a common fund for legal fees paid. Although a committee of the American Bar Association, in an informal opinion, may have approved such an arrangement,
The decree at issue here thus substantially impairs the associational rights of the Mine Workers and is not needed to protect the State’s interest in high standards of legal ethics. In the many years the program has been in operation, there has come to light, so far as we are aware, not one single instance of abuse, of harm to clients, of any actual disadvantage to the public or to the profession, resulting from the mere fact of the financial connection between the Union and the attorney who represents its members. Since the operative portion of the decree prohibits any financial connection between the attorney and the Union, the decree cannot stand; and to the extent any other part of the decree forbids this arrangement it too must fall.
The judgment and decree are vacated and the case is remanded for proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. It is so ordered.
Notes
In addition to the portion just quoted, the court’s decree enjoins the Union from:
“1. Giving legal counsel and advice
“2. Rendering legal opinions
“3. Representing its members with respect to Workmen’s Compensation claims and any and all other claims which they may have under the laws and statutes of the State of Illinois
“4. [Quoted above]
“5. Practicing law in any form either directly or indirectly.”
It is conceded that the Union’s employment of an attorney was the basis for these other provisions of the injunction, and it was not
Ill. Rev. Stat., c. 48, §138.1 et seq. (1963).
The Union’s present attorney, who was the only witness on this matter, testified that the application to be filed with the Industrial Commission was dictated by him to the secretaries, who prepared this form under his direction. R. 18, 40. See also R. 58 (Union’s answers to interrogatories).
The freedoms protected against federal encroachment by the First Amendment are entitled under the Fourteenth Amendment to the same protection from infringement by the States. See, e. g.,
It is irrelevant that the litigation in Trainmen involved statutory-rights created by Congress, while the litigation in the present ease involved state-created rights. Our holding in Trainmen was based not on State interference with a federal program in violation of the Supremacy Clause but rather on petitioner’s freedom of speech, petition, and assembly under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, and this freedom is, of course, as extensive with respect to assembly and discussion related to matters of local as to matters of federal concern.
American Bar Association, Standing Committee on Professional Ethics, Informal Opinion No. 469 (December 26, 1961). The ABA committee did not in fact consider the problem presented where the union not only pays the fee but also recommends the specific attorney, and it strongly implied that it would reach a different result in such a situation: “there is nothing unethical in the situations which you describe so long as the participation of the employer, association or union is confined to payment of or reimbursement for legal expenses only.”
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
This decision cuts deeply into one of the most traditional of state concerns, the maintenance of high
The Canons of Professional Ethics of the Illinois State Bar Association forbid the unauthorized practice of law by any lay agency.
I.
As I stated at greater length in my dissenting opinion in NAACP v. Button,
II.
Although I agree with the balancing approach employed by the majority, I find the scales tip differently. I believe that the majority has weighed the competing interests badly, according too much force to the claims of the Union and too little to those of the public interest at stake. As indicated previously, the interest of the Union stems from its members’ constitutionally protected right to seek redress in the courts or, as here, before an agency. By the plan at issue, the Union has sought to make it easier for members to obtain benefits under the Illinois Workmen’s Compensation Act.
The Illinois Supreme Court in this case repeated its statement in a prior case that a union may properly make known to its members the names of attorneys it deems capable of handling particular types of claims.
As regards the protection of union members against the charging of unreasonable fees, a fully efficient safeguard would seem to be found in the Illinois Workmen’s Compensation Act itself. An amendment to the Act in 1915, shortly after its initial passage,
“shall have the power to determine the reasonableness and fix the amount of any fee or compensation charged by any person for any service performed in connection with this Act, or for which payment is to be made under this Act or rendered in securing any right under this Act.”8
In 1927, the words “including attorneys, physicians, surgeons and hospitals” were added following the phrase “or compensation charged by any person.”
The final interest sought to be promoted by the present plan is in the collective payment of legal fees. That objective could presumably be realized by imposing assessments on union members for the establishment of a fund out of which injured members would be reimbursed for their legal expenses.
The regulatory interest of the State in this instance is found in the potential for abuse inherent in the union plan. The plan operates as follows. The Union employs a licensed lawyer on a salary basis
This union plan contains features which, in my opinion, Illinois may reasonably consider to present the danger of lowering the quality of representation furnished by the attorney to union members in the handling of their claims. The union lawyer has little contact with his client. He processes the applications of injured members on a mass basis. Evidently, he negotiates with the employer’s counsel about many claims at the same time. The State was entitled to conclude that, removed from ready contact with his client, insulated from interference by his actual employer, paid a salary independent of the results achieved, faced with a heavy caseload,
III.
Thus, there is solid support for the Illinois Supreme Court’s conclusion that the union plan presents a danger of harm to the public interest in a regulated bar. The reasonableness of this result is further buttressed by the numerous prior decisions, both in Illinois and elsewhere, in which courts have prohibited the employment of salaried attorneys by groups for the benefit of their members.
The majority dismisses the State’s interest in regulation by pointing out that there have been no proven instances of abuse or actual disadvantage to union members resulting from the operation of the union plan. See ante, at 225. But the proper question is not whether
It is also irrelevant whether we would proscribe the union plan were we sitting as state judges or state legislators. The sole issue before us is whether the Illinois Supreme Court is forbidden to do so because the plan unduly impinges upon rights guaranteed to the Union’s members by the Fourteenth Amendment. Since the finding that the union plan presents dangers to the public and legal profession is not an arbitrary one, and since the limitation upon union members is so slight, in view of the permissible alternatives still open to them, I would hold that there has been no denial of constitutional rights occasioned by Illinois’ prohibition of the plan.
H-i <1
This decision, which again manifests the peculiar insensitivity to the need for seeking an appropriate constitutional balance between federal and state authority that in recent years has characterized so many of the Court’s decisions under the Fourteenth Amendment,
I would affirm.
Canons 35, 47, Canons of Ethics of the Illinois State Bar Association. These canons are identical to the corresponding canons of the American Bar Association.
Even in the absence of applicable statutes, state courts have held themselves empowered to promulgate and enforce standards of professional conduct drawn from the common law and the closely related prohibitions of the Canons of Ethics. See, e. g., In re Maclub of America, Inc.,
This weighing of the competing interests involved is the same approach as that used in NAACP v. Button,
Similarly, the interests in this case are very different from those in eases involving legal aid to the indigent. The situation of a salaried lawyer representing indigent clients was expressly distinguished by the court below. See
See, e. g., Lathrop v. Donohue,
Ill. Rev. Stat., c. 48, §138.1 et seq. (1963).
See
It may be significant that the union plan was instituted in 1913, prior to this amendment of the Act. See ante, at 219.
Ill. Laws, 1915, p. 408.
Ill. Laws, 1927, p. 511.
Cf. American Bar Association, Committee on Professional Ethics, Informal Opinion No. 469 (December 26, 1961) (union may reimburse member client for legal expenses).
The salary paid at the time of this action was $12,400 per annum.
The attorney employed by the Union in this case handled more than 400 workmen’s compensation claims a year.
The attorney employed by the Mine Workers was also an Illinois state senator and had a private practice other than the Mine Workers’ representation.
Of 351 workmen’s compensation cases, from all sources, which were appealed to the Illinois courts during the period 1936-1967, only one was appealed by a miner affiliated with District 12. No such miner has appealed since 1942. See Respondents’ Brief, at 17-18.
See, e. g., People ex rel. Courtney v. Association of Beal Estate Tax-payers,
It is possible that the operation of the plan did result in union members receiving a lower quality of legal representation than they otherwise would have had. For example, the Mine Workers’ present attorney recovered an average of $1,160 per case, while his predecessor secured an average of $1,350, even though the permissible rates of recovery were lower during the predecessor’s tenure. See Record, at 53-54, 58-60; Brief for Respondents 18. See also n. 14, supra.
It has been suggested both in this case and elsewhere, cf. Hackin v. Arizona, ante, p. 143 (Douglas, J., dissenting), that prevailing Canons of Ethics and traditional customs in the legal profession will have to be modified to keep pace with the needs of new social developments, such as the Federal Poverty Program. That may well be true, but such considerations furnish no justification for today’s heavy-handed action by the Court. The American Bar Association and other bodies throughout the country already have such matters under consideration. See, e. g., 1964 ABA Reports 381-383 (establishment of Special Committee on Ethical Standards) ; 1966 ABA Reports 589-594 (Report of Special Committee on Availability of Legal Services); 39 Calif. State Bar Journal 639-742 (Report of Committee on Group Legal Services). Moreover, the complexity of these matters makes them especially suitable for experimentation at the local level. And, all else failing, the Congress undoubtedly has the power to implement federal programs by establishing overriding rules governing legal representation in connection therewith.
Concurrence Opinion
concurs in the result upon the sole ground that the disposition of this case is controlled by Railroad Trainmen v. Virginia Bar,