A follow up on Tuesday’s post (Wills and Grace) about the tax consequences of the lawyer who prepared wills for members of his church congregation in return for a $50 contribution to the church:  Christopher R. Hoyt (Missouri-Kansas City) notes that the case also raises a serious ethics issue:

In 2004, the Maryland State Bar Association held that it was an ethics violation for an attorney to prepare free wills for fellow church members. Maryland State Bar Association, Committee on Ethics, Ethics Docket 2003-08; "Ethics Opinion: Attorney Can’t Draft Free Will for Donors," Charitable Gift Planning News, Vol. 22, No. 2, Feb. 2004, at. 1. Here is a summary from Jerry McCoy in Washington D.C.:

A lawyer who served as volunteer chairman of his church’s "Legacy Committee" proposed to prepare estate planning documents free of charge for parishioners who did not have an attorney. The Maryland State Bar Association Committee on Ethics held that the attorney’s participation in this proposed program would pose an irreconcilable conflict of interest – one that could not be resolved by a simple waiver.

Of course, this sent shock waives through the non-profit community. Many attorneys work with non-profits. What are the ethics of encouraging charitable gifts to the non-profit, even among the "converted." Does charging $65 solve it? Probably not. On the other hand, very few people are aware of the opinion. A lot of this sort of stuff must be going on.

The tax issues raised by the Wills and Grace case are discussed in detail by Jim Maule (Villanova) here.