Statement on Illinois HB 5487 | Relevant Newsroom
Relevant Management Services' statement on Illinois House Bill 5487, passed by the General Assembly on May 31, 2026 and awaiting the Governor's action.
Press Release — Published 2026-07-22
Relevant Management Services today issued the following statement regarding Illinois House Bill 5487, which the Illinois General Assembly passed on May 31, 2026. As of this release, the bill awaits the Governor's action and would take effect upon becoming law.
As passed, HB 5487 does not prohibit management services organizations. It bars nonlawyers and nonlawyer entities from interfering with a lawyer's professional judgment or exercising control over core legal functions, and it prohibits compensation that is based, directly or indirectly, on a law firm's legal fees, revenues, or profits. Management services organizations that operate as conventional service providers — preserving lawyer independence and avoiding compensation tied to legal fees or firm profits — remain able to operate within the bill's framework.
That framework describes how Relevant Management Services has always operated. 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.
Illinois joins a consistent pattern. Colorado's House Bill 26-1421, effective August 12, 2026, bars percentage-of-revenue compensation to nonlawyer businesses while expressly preserving flat-fee and hourly compensation for management services organizations. 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. States are not banning the MSO model — they are banning the percentage version of it. The company will provide an updated statement if the bill is signed into law.
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