Jacoby & Meyers, the discount law firm with storefront offices across the U.S., won an appeals court ruling reinstating its legal attack on a New York statute barring nonlawyers from owning interests in law firms.
Jacoby & Meyers, which wants capital to expand into communities with working-class and immigrant families, has asked federal courts in New Jersey and Connecticut as well as New York to throw out such laws. A judge last year dismissed the New York case citing technical grounds.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in New York Wednesday reinstated the suit and returned it to the trial court.
Jacoby & Meyers has said it wants to add new legal challenges in its suit, which the appeals court said the firm may do. The court didn't rule on the "interesting theoretical issues" raised by the case.
Three directors of a small New York bank, including one who also sells new and used Mercedes-Benzes, have expressed interest in investing in Jacoby & Meyers, the firm said in court papers.
The case is Jacoby & Meyers v. Presiding Judges, 12-1377, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Manhattan).
