Vegas attorney sues for right to use trade names

Thursday, Sept. 5, 2002 | 11:30 a.m.

A Las Vegas law firm using the names Your Legal Power and Su Poder Legal sued to stop the State Bar of Nevada from enforcing a rule barring law firms from using trade names.

Herbert Michel Jr., who runs the law firms, filed a U.S. District Court lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Nevada Supreme Court rule 199, which prohibits the use of trade names by for-profit lawyers and law firms but allows them for non-profits.

Michel, who said he had been operating under those names for the past seven years in Nevada and spent more than $1.2 million promoting the names, called the new rule a violation of his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights to use the names.

The State Bar has been sued during the past two years by three other law firms seeking to practice in Nevada using their deceased founding members' names. Those members weren't members of the Nevada Bar, a requirement for using their names in law firm names.

State Bar officials could not be reached for comment on Michel's lawsuit.

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