On Sept. 21, at least 76 families of passengers who died in the four terrorist hijackings of Sept. 11 received packets containing a leatherlike portfolio stuffed with $50 to $200 in cash, prepaid calling cards and the names of four law firms with “extensive experience in major airline and other similar mass disasters.”

        But the packages were not sent by lawyers. They came from Providence Inc., a Cincinnati company that employs no lawyers and so is not covered by a 1996 federal law that forbids lawyers to approach the families of air crash victims for 45 days after an accident. Providence says none of the law firms named on its list knew that their names were being distributed.

        Besides the cash and the calling cards, the packet included the names and phone numbers of four law firms: Waite, Schneider, Bayless & Chesley of Cincinnati; Richardson, Stoops, Richardson & Ward of Tulsa, Okla.; and Kreindler & Kreindler and Speiser, Krause, Nolan & Granito in New York.

        Jerome Skinner, a partner at Waite, Schneider, said he recently received a call from someone who had lost a family member. Mr. Skinner said he asked how the person got his name and number, and then contacted Providence himself.

        “I confirmed with him that he had not had any prior permissions to use our name,” Mr. Skinner said, adding that he told Providence to stop including his law firm's name on the list. John Janis, the director of business development for Providence, said he did not recall Mr. Skinner's making that request.

        Mr. Skinner said that his firm and two others — Speiser and Kreindler — were preparing to sue Providence to force it to stop sending out the packages. Richardson, Stoops said that it was not aware of the mailing but that, in the past, it had referred a client to Providence.

        The mailing shows how difficult it may be for the legal profession to police its image in the aftermath of disasters. But the response to the mailing shows how determined lawyers are to do so: One lawyer said he had referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago to determine whether sending the packages violated any federal laws, and three of the four listed law firms said they planned to sue Providence.

        Such reactions do not shake Mr. Janis. To attract borrowers, the company routinely sends similar packets offering loans to families affected by disasters, from factory explosions to bus accidents.

        “If there's someone out there that needs their mortgage paid for, or their surgery paid for, that's what we're here to do,” Mr. Janis said. In return, he said, his company receives a flat fee or a percentage of any future settlement — an amount that could substantially exceed the original loan. But if a family receives nothing, Providence is not paid.

        Many lawyers see Providence's activities as contrary to the spirit of the federal anti-solicitation law that was passed in 1996 after the crash of TWA Flight 800. “This is one of the worst things that any business organization could be sending to these victims,” said Robert Clifford, a Chicago lawyer who is chairman of the bar association's Task Force on Terrorism and the Law.

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