Statement on Colorado HB 26-1421 | Relevant Newsroom
Relevant Management Services' statement on Colorado HB 26-1421, the Legal Practice Integrity and Fee-Sharing Prohibition Act, effective August 12, 2026.
Press Release — Published 2026-07-22
Relevant Management Services today issued the following statement regarding Colorado House Bill 26-1421, the Legal Practice Integrity and Fee-Sharing Prohibition Act, which was enacted in June 2026 and takes effect August 12, 2026.
The company welcomes the clarity the statute brings. HB 26-1421 bars compensation to a nonlawyer business that is contingent on, or calculated as a percentage of, a law firm's legal fees, revenues, profits, or case outcomes — while expressly preserving flat-fee and hourly compensation for management services organizations. In the company's view, that is the right line: it protects the independence of legal judgment while confirming that law firms may buy professional business services the same way any business does.
Relevant Management Services' agreements have always been structured on the compliant side of that line. The independent, attorney-owned firms that engage the company compensate it at fixed or objectively calculated fees for defined business services — strategy, brand, marketing, technology, and back-office operations. The company is never paid a share of legal fees, revenues, profits, or case outcomes, and it takes no part in legal work or legal judgment.
Colorado is part of a broader pattern. Texas Professional Ethics Committee Opinion 706, issued in February 2025, held that percentage-of-revenue compensation to an MSO is impermissible fee-splitting while approving objectively structured fees. California's AB 931, effective at the start of 2026, added restrictions on fee-sharing with out-of-state alternative business structures. In Illinois, the General Assembly passed House Bill 5487 in May 2026; the bill awaits the Governor's action. The direction is consistent: states are not banning the MSO model — they are banning the percentage version of it.
The company's full analysis of HB 26-1421 is available at www.relevantms.com/insights/colorado-hb-26-1421-mso-regulation.
About Relevant Management Services: Relevant Management Services is a legal management services organization (MSO) that provides strategy, brand, marketing, technology, and back-office operations to independent, attorney-owned law firms. The firms it serves operate under distinct client-facing brands — Relevant Law for advisory and transactional work, Alden Kinsley for litigation — from hubs in Richmond, VA; Lynchburg, VA; Colorado Springs, CO; and Bellevue, WA. Relevant Management Services is not a law firm and does not provide legal services or legal advice. Each firm is independently owned by licensed attorneys who retain complete control over all legal work, and each firm compensates RMS at fixed or objectively calculated fees for business services — never a share of legal fees, revenues, or case outcomes.
Relevant Management Services is not a law firm and does not provide legal services or legal advice. Nothing in this release is legal advice or an offer of legal services.
Media inquiries: info@relevantms.com