Money makes the world go ’round, as Joel Grey reminded us in Cabaret. But there is also much worldly value in wisdom, as the philosophers hold. So if you can acquire wisdom about money, it seems you have double-dipped.
Wisdom about money can be found in unexpected places. One place is the Arbitration Advisories published by the State Bar of California. These authoritative memoranda were originally written by the California Bar’s Mandatory Fee Arbitration (MFA) Committee to guide the deliberations of California’s volunteer fee arbitrators in the mandatory fee arbitration program established by Business and Professions Code sections 6200 et seq. In 2019, the MFA was integrated into the California Bar’s Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct (COPRAC), the body that writes California formal legal ethics opinions.
That integration has been fruitful. The Arbitration Advisories were always meticulous, well-reasoned and well-researched but they are even better now in my view with more legal ethics analysis.
Recently approved Arbitration Advisory 2025-1, effective May 22, shows you what I mean. Entitled “Determination of A Reasonable Fee,” it replaces the valuable prior advisory 1998-03 with the same name with expanded analysis, examples, and ends with a list of 28 relevant questions to be asked in reasonable fee analysis. The Arbitration Advisory is a hidden treasure not only for fee arbitrators, but for practicing lawyers, and lawyers who advise practicing lawyers, about the ethics of fees.
The Arbitration Advisories are not well known but they deserve to be,