referral fees for legal affiliate programs

[LifeinAsia]

So my understanding is that in most jurisdictions (in the U.S.) lawyers are prohibited from paying referral fees to non-lawyers. Yet I see several law firms doing just that. I'm not talking about LegalZoom or other legal advice sites, but actual law firms.

Any ideas how they are getting around the issue?

[piatkow]

Put it through the accounts as "advertising"?

[LifeinAsia]

They can call it whatever they want, but that won't fly in an audit. And when they publicly promote their affiliate programs as pay-per-lead...

Did some more research and it "seems" like paying for general leads (like in an affiliate program/lead generation system) seems like it might be okay, although no real ruling has been made.

So it sounds like it's better to charge a flat monthly advertising fee instead of pay per lead.