NAM Legal Referral Service powered by Meritas

Conditions and Disclaimers

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Welcome to the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) Legal Referral Service powered by Meritas. Through this Site, members can pose general questions regarding compliance issues. Staff will screen these questions and answer them directly or refer them to Meritas’ global network of law firms. Before posing your question, please note that you must agree to the following terms and conditions (throughout these terms and conditions “you” and “your” refers to your company):

• If you need to take immediate legal action or have some other time sensitive specific matter (such as an injunction or temporary restraining order), you should engage directly with your own counsel.
• Your questions should not disclose any information that is considered confidential or privileged by your company. You agree that neither the NAM, Meritas, nor (if the matter is referred) a Meritas network law firm will be under any obligation to treat such information or any aspect of your participation in this program as confidential or privileged.
• Your questions should not disclose specific facts but rather should be general or hypothetical in nature. Any information you receive through this program will be for informational purposes only and will not constitute nor shall it be construed as legal advice. Your company should retain legal counsel if you desire to receive legal advice pertaining to the specific facts and circumstances applicable to your company.
• Your questions should not relate to any existing or potential dispute. (If you have a question that relates to such a dispute or which requires fact-specific legal advice, please refer to the paragraph that follows these bullet points.)
• You agree that you are not discussing the possibility of forming an attorney-client relationship by participating in this program, whether it would be with the NAM, Meritas, or (if the matter is referred) a Meritas network law firm, and no actual or prospective attorney client relationship will be created by your participation in this program.
• You agree that NAM, Meritas, and Meritas network law firms are not providing legal advice, but may be providing legal information and that legal information is not a substitute for legal advice.
• You agree that you should not take any action, or refrain from taking any action, based on what is included in or omitted from any response received through this Site without first seeking qualified professional legal counsel on your specific matter, which should be the exclusive basis for your decisions.
• You agree that upon your receipt of a response to your question there will be no ongoing obligation to provide further information or otherwise assist with your inquiry, and no ongoing relationship will be created with the NAM and/or (if the matter is referred) a Meritas network law firm.
• You agree that you will not forward any answer from the NAM, Meritas, or a Meritas network law firm outside your company without the consent of the party providing the answer, whether the NAM, Meritas, and/or a Meritas network law firm.
• A major part of the program is that the NAM and Meritas may refer your inquiry to a Meritas network law firm, which has clients in many matters. At present or in the future you may be involved in a transaction or litigation or other adverse relationship with a current or future client of the law firms. You agree that (i) the scope of legal services that partner law firms can offer to existing and new clients will not be limited or diminished in any way by your or their participation in this program, even if such representations of their clients are directly adverse to your interests, and (ii) partner law firms will not be precluded from continuing or undertaking any new representation, whether in litigation, arbitration, mediation, a transaction, or any other matter, by reason of having responded to your inquiry or any other aspect of your or their participation in this program.

The NAM Legal Referral Service powered by Meritas provides you with free information on a business line call which is designed to last from 15 to 30 minutes. This guidance will be in the nature of general legal information, but not specific legal advice that would require the formation of an attorney-client relationship. If your matter is complex and requires additional research or legal representation, the law firm will so advise you. In any event, after being provided with general information through this service, you may wish to consult with an attorney of your choice for specific legal advice based on the facts and circumstances applicable to your company, or you may seek to retain the law firm, subject to their normal client intake procedures.

Should you desire to retain counsel to provide specific legal advice based on your company’s specific situation, a representative of the law firm will be pleased to speak with you to determine whether it can represent your company in the matter, subject to the firm’s intake processes (including checking for conflicts) and the execution of an engagement letter.

Any disputes in connection with this program shall be governed by the laws of the District of Columbia (without regard to conflicts of law principles), and any proceeding which may arise out of or in connection with this Site shall be brought solely in a court or other appropriate body in Washington, DC.

Please click below to indicate you have understood and agreed to these terms and conditions: