Compliance guide
Firms that advertise and take inquiries online work under rules on what they may say, whom they may contact, and what their staff and tools may tell a prospect. Here is what those rules ask, and how Yantra Firms is built around them.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. The rules differ from state to state and change over time, so check your state bar, your board of accountancy or the IRS before you rely on any of it. Updated October 25, 2026.
Most states base their rules of professional conduct on the ABA Model Rules, with changes of their own. These are the ones that shape intake and marketing.
Model Rule 7.1
Nothing you say about your services may be false or misleading. That includes statements that create unjustified expectations about the results you can get.
In Yantra Firms: Your intake page and the agent's script make no promises about outcomes, and you approve every post and ad.
Model Rule 7.2
You may advertise, but generally may not give anything of value to someone for recommending you, apart from the exceptions the rule lists. Each communication must include the name and contact information of at least one lawyer or law firm responsible for its content. You may call yourself a certified specialist only if an approved organization certified you, and you name it.
In Yantra Firms: Your intake page shows the responsible attorney you name, and your firm's contact details.
Model Rule 7.3
You may not solicit professional employment by live person-to-person contact when a significant motive is the lawyer's or firm's pecuniary gain, apart from narrow exceptions.
In Yantra Firms: The agent only answers people who called or wrote to you. Follow-ups go only to people who asked for help and agreed to be contacted.
Model Rule 1.18
Someone who consults you about a possible matter is owed confidentiality even when no engagement follows, and what they told you can create a conflict later.
In Yantra Firms: Declined leads stay in your records and are part of every later conflict check. The form asks for only a brief summary until you have checked conflicts.
Model Rule 5.3
Lawyers must make reasonable efforts to ensure that nonlawyer assistance is compatible with their own professional obligations.
In Yantra Firms: You write and approve the agent's script, and every lead reaches a person on your team.
Model Rule 5.5
A lawyer may not practice law where the rules do not allow it, or help someone else do so. An agent that tells a caller what the law means for their situation would cross that line.
In Yantra Firms: The script Yantra writes for the agent forbids legal advice and gives it a fixed line to say instead. Keep that part when you edit the script, and review calls like any other assistant's work.
Not a complete list. Check the rules of every state where you advertise.
That is why your intake page has an "Attorney Advertising" label you can switch on and a field for the attorney responsible for it.
Accounting firms answer to the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct and to the board of accountancy in each state where they practice.
AICPA Code 1.600.001
Members in public practice may not seek clients through advertising or solicitation that is false, misleading or deceptive, for example by creating false or unjustified expectations of favorable results.
In Yantra Firms: Nothing on your intake page or in the agent's script promises a result.
State boards of accountancy
Your state board decides who may use the CPA title and how a firm may present it, and many boards have advertising rules of their own.
In Yantra Firms: Your firm's name and credentials appear exactly as you enter them.
Anyone who practices before the IRS is bound by Treasury Department Circular 230, and every preparer is bound by the Internal Revenue Code's rules on return information.
Circular 230, section 10.30
Practitioners may not use false, fraudulent, coercive, misleading or deceptive statements or claims in advertising or solicitation. Enrolled agents describing their designation may not use the term "certified" or imply an employer or employee relationship with the IRS.
In Yantra Firms: Nothing on your intake page claims a link to the IRS, and the agent never estimates a refund or a penalty.
Annual Filing Season Program
Preparers who hold an Annual Filing Season Program Record of Completion must not call themselves "certified".
In Yantra Firms: Describe your credentials on your intake page and website exactly as the IRS issued them.
Internal Revenue Code section 7216
Preparers may not use or disclose tax return information without the taxpayer's written consent, apart from limited exceptions, and that includes using it to market other services.
In Yantra Firms: Keep return information out of follow-up campaigns unless the client has given written consent.
Whatever your profession, federal rules decide how you may follow up with the people who contact you.
TCPA
Under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, automated calls and texts to a person's phone generally need that person's prior express consent.
In Yantra Firms: The intake form records consent to be contacted and, separately, consent to texts. Text campaigns honor STOP.
CAN-SPAM
Commercial email needs a working way to unsubscribe and your physical postal address, and opt-outs must be honored.
In Yantra Firms: Email campaigns handle unsubscribe. Put your office address in your template.
Yantra's agent works the front desk, not the case. Its script, written by Intake from your practice areas, keeps it on the intake side of the line.
"I can't give legal advice, but I can get your details to an attorney who can."
Then it offers a consultation. For accounting and tax firms it says the same about accounting or tax advice.
Submitting the intake form does not create an attorney-client or other professional relationship. The form asks for only a brief summary until the firm has checked for conflicts, and the exact disclaimer each prospect saw is kept with their request.
Create your firm, switch on the advertising label if your state needs it, name the responsible attorney, and share your link.
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