Rachel M. Zahorsky reports:
The American Bar Association came one step closer today to halting an attempt by the Federal Trade Commission to regulate the practice of law when the U.S. Senate unanimously voted that the commission’s “red flags rule” doesn’t apply to lawyers.
The legislation at issue, which seeks to curb identity theft among credit and financial regulatory agencies through prevention and detection programs, “makes clear” that lawyers, doctors, dentists, accountants and other heath care and service providers “will no longer be classified as ‘creditors’ for the purposes of the red flags rule just because they do not receive payment in full from their clients at the time they provide their services, when they don’t offer or maintain accounts that pose a reasonably foreseeable risk of identify theft,” Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said in a colloquy (PDF) inserted in the record after the vote.
Read more on ABA Journal.
Until the House passes this and the President signs off, it’s not a done deal, but it’s looking good.