Hugo E. Gomez, Founder (Abogados NOW): “There are clearly exemptions to each rule, right? At the highest level, if someone is running a campaign—whether it’s a Facebook ad or a multi-channel effort with TV, radio, and out-of-home ads—what’s the best, most responsible way for attorneys to submit their ads to the State Bar?”
Jonathan Grabb, Ethics Counsel (Florida State Bar): “We have a lot of resources available on our website. If you go to floridabar.org, you’ll find links at the top for Rules, Ethics and Professionalism and then Ethics and Advertising. From there, you can access our advertising page, which includes cover sheets that explain the filing process. These sheets provide forms with all the information we need to review an advertisement, as well as instructions on where to send it and how to calculate the filing fee. That’s the general process.
Now, I’m sure some attorneys might be hearing this and worrying, ‘I’ve never filed my website or my social media posts.’ Here’s the good news: you don’t need to file your website. Websites are specifically exempt.
For social media, filing is only required for sponsored, boosted, or promoted posts. The same rule applies to video-sharing platforms like YouTube. You don’t need to file your channel’s content unless you’re promoting videos as ads that are shown to people who haven’t actively searched for them.”