An attorney referral fee is money paid because one lawyer sent a prospective client to another, and the rules treat the lawyer-to-lawyer and pay-a-nonlawyer versions differently.
Both sit inside the attorney advertising rules: the ABA Model Rules are the template, and the version your state has adopted governs.
Two payments get called a referral fee
The first is lawyer to lawyer: firm A sends a matter to firm B, which signs the client, and part of the fee goes back to firm A.
The second is lawyer to nonlawyer: a marketer or service sends a prospective client for money, which is what ABA Model Rule 7.2(b) treats as paying for a recommendation.
Which rule applies decides everything else.
Lawyer to lawyer
ABA Model Rule 1.5(e): a proportional split or joint responsibility, the client's confirmed written agreement, a reasonable total fee.
Lawyer to nonlawyer
Model Rule 7.2(b): nothing of value for recommendations outside five exceptions, plus Model Rule 5.4 on fee sharing.
Referral fees between lawyers: the Rule 1.5(e) test
ABA Model Rule 1.5(e) says lawyers in different firms may divide a fee only if the division is proportional to the services performed by each lawyer, or each lawyer assumes joint responsibility for the representation.
The second condition belongs to the client: the agreement must be confirmed in writing, covering the arrangement and each lawyer's share.
The third is the total: the fee as a whole must stay reasonable.
Say a referred case's fee is $30,000 and the referring firm's share is $9,000: Model Rule 1.5(e) puts both shares in the client's writing, leaving $21,000 for the handling firm.
Illustrative: the writing names each share
The rule applies between lawyers only; paying anyone who is not a lawyer for a referral is a Rule 7.2(b) and Rule 5.4 question instead.
State versions differ: the ABA's Rule 1.5 variations chart (as archived in March 2024) shows Alabama's version expressly mentioning a referring lawyer, and California and Texas use different wording.
Can lawyers pay for referrals? The Rule 7.2(b) ban
ABA Model Rule 7.2(b) says a lawyer shall not give anything of value to a person for recommending the lawyer's services, and then lists five exceptions.
Rule 7.2(b) is one part of ABA Model Rule 7.2.
- Reasonable advertising costs (7.2(b)(1)): the cost of permitted advertisements and communications.
- Legal service plans and qualified lawyer referral services (7.2(b)(2)): the usual charges of a plan, or of a not-for-profit or qualified lawyer referral service, one approved by an appropriate regulatory authority.
- Buying a law practice (7.2(b)(3)): Rule 1.17 permits sale of an entire practice or practice area if its conditions are met, and the seller stops practicing in that area.
- Reciprocal referral agreements (7.2(b)(4)): with another lawyer or a nonlawyer professional, only if the agreement is not exclusive and the client is told about it.
- Nominal thank-you gifts (7.2(b)(5)): added in 2018; Comment [4] compares them to holiday tokens or ordinary social hospitality, never gifts promised or understood to follow referrals.
Comment [8] says the reciprocal agreement should not run indefinitely, should be reviewed periodically, and permits no payment made solely for the referral except as Rule 1.5(e) allows.
The gift exception is not universal: not every state adopted 7.2(b)(5).
New Jersey's RPC 7.2(c) and 7.3(d) (NJ Courts rule text, amendments through September 1, 2018) bar giving anything of value for recommending a lawyer, with exceptions for the reasonable cost of permitted advertising, the usual charges of a not-for-profit lawyer referral service or legal service organization, and the fees of a bar-operated, sponsored or approved referral service.
California's Rule 7.2(b) (Cal. Rules of Professional Conduct, effective November 1, 2018) keeps the same shape: reasonable advertising costs, the usual charges of a legal services plan or a qualified lawyer referral service meeting the State Bar's Minimum Standards, and gifts not tied to future referrals.
California adds Business and Professions Code §6157.4: referral-service ads must disclose whether panel lawyers paid more than a proportional share of actual cost to be listed.
California's Rule 7.2 comment [3] permits paying marketing vendors such as publicists, business-development staff and website designers.
Fee sharing between lawyers and with nonlawyers: Rule 5.4
ABA Model Rule 5.4(a) says a lawyer or firm shall not share legal fees with a nonlawyer, except in narrow listed cases: payments to a deceased lawyer's estate, purchase of a law practice, nonlawyer employee profit-sharing plans, and court-awarded fees shared with a nonprofit.
Rule 5.4(c) adds that a lawyer cannot let someone who recommends, employs or pays the lawyer direct the lawyer's professional judgment.
A payment that rises and falls with fees on the cases a marketer produces draws 5.4 scrutiny; a flat fee for defined services is analyzed as paying for services; state opinions vary on the line.
As of January 2023, the ABA's Rule 5.4 variations chart records Arizona repealing its Rule 5.4 effective January 1, 2021, and Utah with a substantially different version, the background to alternative business structures.
Repeal is context, not permission for any marketing contract.
Paying for leads, directories and referral services
ABA Model Rule 7.2 Comment [5] allows paying for client leads only if the generator does not recommend the lawyer, the payment fits Rules 1.5(e) and 5.4, and the generator's communications meet Rule 7.1, with Rule 5.3 and Rule 8.4(a) attached.
Whether a per-lead or per-case price counts as fee sharing is a state-by-state question, because the Model Rule never mentions pay-per-lead by name.
New York's Rule 7.2 comment [1] allows paying for advertising including online directories, internet ads, search engine optimization and group advertising, and allows paying lead generators that do not recommend the lawyer, subject to the fee-division, independence and advertising rules (NYSBA rule text, August 2026; Rule 7.2 was unchanged by the June 1, 2026 amendments).
The limit is conduct: a New York lawyer must not pay a generator that states or implies it is recommending the lawyer, referring without payment, or having analyzed the person's legal problem.
Florida regulates the providers themselves: Rule 4-7.22 of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar, as of October 1, 2026, calls lead generators, matching services, directories and pooled-advertising programs "qualifying providers," and a lawyer may work with one only if it meets 12 conditions.
The 12 include no fee sharing unless the provider is a Bar-approved referral service, no implying it is a law firm, lawyers from at least 4 different firms on the panel, and a report to the Bar within 15 days of starting or stopping participation.
Florida also shifts the burden: a lawyer is responsible for a provider's noncompliance if the lawyer skipped due diligence, or kept participating more than 30 days after the Bar gave notice.
Texas polices the back end: Rule 7.06(a) to (c) of the Texas Disciplinary Rules (Part VII, effective July 1, 2021) bars accepting or continuing a matter obtained through conduct the advertising rules prohibit, whether by the lawyer, others in the firm, or a person the lawyer encouraged or knowingly permitted.
Its Comment 4 closes the loop: a lawyer who learns a referred case was obtained improperly may continue it only if nothing of value, such as a referral fee, is paid for it.
What a referral fee agreement has to reflect
The Model Rules publish no form, but a referral fee agreement between lawyers has to capture the Model Rule 1.5(e) conditions: the basis for the division, each lawyer's share, the client's confirmed writing, and a reasonable total fee.
For the reciprocal arrangement under 7.2(b)(4), the elements change: non-exclusivity, disclosure to the client, no indefinite duration, periodic review.
The unpaid version is how most referral flow actually gets built, and how to get referrals as a lawyer covers the relationship side.
Everything above describes what the model rules and five states say as of October 2026; your state's version controls, so confirm the current rule with your state bar's ethics counsel or an ethics lawyer.
Frequently asked questions
When can lawyers in different firms split a fee?
ABA Model Rule 1.5(e) permits it only when the division is proportional to the work each lawyer performed, or each lawyer assumes joint responsibility; the client agrees in a confirmed writing that states each lawyer's share; and the total fee is reasonable. Your state's adopted version of Rule 1.5 controls.
Do lawyers have to tell clients about a referral fee?
ABA Model Rule 1.5(e) conditions a split on the client's agreement, confirmed in writing, to the arrangement including each lawyer's share. Separately, Model Rule 7.2(b)(4) allows reciprocal referral agreements only when the client is told about them.
What is a qualified lawyer referral service?
Under ABA Model Rule 7.2(b)(2) and Comment [6], it is a lawyer referral service approved by an appropriate regulatory authority, whose usual charges a lawyer may pay. The comment adds that any organization holding itself out to the public as a lawyer referral service is treated as one, and states differ on what they approve.
Does a referring lawyer have to do work to share the fee?
ABA Model Rule 1.5(e) says the division must be proportional to the services each lawyer performed, or each lawyer must assume joint responsibility for the representation; the client must agree in a confirmed writing to each lawyer's share, and the total fee must be reasonable. State versions differ (the ABA's Rule 1.5 variations chart shows Alabama's version expressly mentioning a referring lawyer), so your state's rule controls.