Nonlawyer ownership of firms is the latest target of an Instagram satirist whose character sends up affluent financiers and dealmakers. Fitness instructor Johnny Hilbrant, who grew up in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka, has built an audience by lampooning the social world he knew as a teenager.
Hilbrant’s recurring persona, “PE Guy,” is a Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management MBA who works in private equity, is married with three children, and peppers conversations with name-drops and talk of transactions.
In a reel posted Monday, the character opens with, “Did I tell you we’re buying up law practices?” He continues by noting, “Historically nonlawyers have not been able to own law firms. Some like Rule 5.4 drama or something,” before hinting that any acquisition plan would include an artificial intelligence component.
Hilbrant’s account, @johnnyhilbrant, had roughly 499,000 followers at the time, and by Friday the post had drawn about 18,700 likes, according to the platform’s visible metrics.
Debate over nonlawyer ownership of firms
The “Rule 5.4 drama” line references an ongoing legal ethics debate. As legal commentators have noted, ABA Model Rule 5.4 restricts law firm ownership by nonlawyers, a guardrail intended to protect professional independence of judgment.
Recent discussions have surveyed attorneys’ views on whether private equity should be permitted to invest in or acquire law practices, with opinions ranging from enthusiastic to skeptical.
Hilbrant’s satire nods to that dispute, playing it for laughs while invoking real tensions in the profession about capital, control, and the role of technology in legal services. Related disciplinary questions have surfaced in cases such as a Missouri Supreme Court decision disbarring an attorney over missed court dates.