Law firm and supervisory duties — Rules 5.1, 5.3, 5.5
**Rule 5.1 — Responsibilities of partners, managers, and supervisory lawyers:** • (a) Partners and managers shall make reasonable efforts to ensure the firm has in effect measures giving reasonable assurance that all lawyers in the firm conform to the Rules. • (b) Direct supervisors shall make reasonable efforts to ensure the supervised lawyer conforms. • (c) A lawyer is **responsible for another lawyer's violation** if the lawyer (1) orders or ratifies the conduct, or (2) is a partner/manager/direct supervisor, knows of the conduct at a time when its consequences can be avoided/mitigated, and fails to take reasonable remedial action.
**Rule 5.3 — Nonlawyer assistance:** same structure as 5.1 applied to paralegals, investigators, vendors (cloud/e-discovery), and outsourced services. The lawyer must make reasonable efforts to ensure the nonlawyer's conduct is compatible with the lawyer's professional obligations — including confidentiality, conflicts checks, and (now) cybersecurity.
**Rule 5.4 — Professional independence:** prohibits (a) fee sharing with nonlawyers (with narrow exceptions — firm employees, deceased-lawyer estates, court-awarded legal fees to nonprofits); (b) partnerships with nonlawyers for the practice of law; (d) nonlawyer ownership of a law firm (except Arizona and D.C., which have relaxed this).
**Rule 5.5 — Unauthorized practice / multijurisdictional practice:** a lawyer shall not practice law in a jurisdiction where doing so violates the regulation of the legal profession. **Temporary practice** is permitted (5.5(c)) in association with local counsel, in/ancillary to a pending or reasonably anticipated tribunal/ADR proceeding, in/arising out of the lawyer's practice in the lawyer's home jurisdiction, or for special in-house counsel (5.5(d)).
**Rule 5.6 — Restrictions on right to practice:** prohibits non-compete agreements among lawyers except retirement benefits; no 'don't sue me in the future' clauses in settlements.