The Many Aspects of "Multi-Jurisdictional Practice"
We live in a shrinking world, where national boundaries have less significance, perhaps, than state boundaries once had. American lawyers routinely travel the country, and indeed world, to provide legal services where their clients interests take them. The practice of law has evolved; the ethics rules have not. Indeed, many lawyers routinely and unwittingly engage in the unauthorized practice of law by travelling to states in which they are not licensed and providing legal services in those states.
The price some have paid is quite high: clients in at least two recently and well-publicized cases have successfully avoided paying the fees due to their lawyers because the lawyers provided legal services in states in which they were not licensed.
In-house counsel face unique challenges. Some in-house lawyers are required bytheir employers to move to states in which they are not licensed to practice. Some states permit in-house counsel to provide advice to their employers (and some, only their employers) under such circumstances. Others do not. Others take a middle course, requiring in-house counsel to receive special license to practice in a state in which they are not licensed.
The links below will take you to pages collecting authority addressing these different aspects of "mjp" and its side-effect, the unauthorized practice of law.
To read about ethical issues relating to multi-jurisdictional practice and in-house counsel, click here
To read about ethical issues relating to multi-jurisdictional practice and out-house counsel, click here
