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In its most general sense, the practice of law involves giving legal advice to clients, drafting legal documents for clients, and representing clients in legal negotiations and court proceedings such as lawsuits, and is applied to the professional services of a lawyer or
attorney at law Attorney at law or attorney-at-law, usually abbreviated in everyday speech to attorney, is the preferred term for a practising lawyer in certain jurisdictions, including South Africa (for certain lawyers), Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and the United ...
, barrister,
solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...
, or
civil law notary Civil-law notaries, or Latin notaries, are lawyers of noncontentious private civil law who draft, take, and record legal instruments for private parties, provide legal advice and give attendance in person, and are vested as public officers wit ...
. However, there is a substantial amount of overlap between the practice of law and various other professions where clients are represented by agents. These professions include
real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more genera ...
,
banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...
,
accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "language ...
, and insurance. Moreover, a growing number of
legal document assistant A legal document assistant (LDA, also known as "document technician," "legal document preparer," "legal technician," "online legal document provider" or "legal document clerk") in the United States is a non-lawyer who is authorized to assist with ...
s (LDAs) are offering services which have traditionally been offered only by lawyers and their employee paralegals. Many documents may now be created by computer-assisted drafting libraries, where the clients are asked a series of questions that are posed by the software in order to construct the
legal documents Legal instrument is a legal term of art that is used for any formally executed written document that can be formally attributed to its author, records and formally expresses a legally enforceable act, process, or contractual duty, obligation, or ...
. In addition, regulatory
consulting firm A consulting firm or simply consultancy is a professional service firm that provides expertise and specialised labour for a fee, through the use of consultants. Consulting firms may have one employee or thousands; they may consult in a broad range ...
s also provide advisory services on regulatory compliance that were traditionally provided exclusively by law firms.


United States

In the United States, the practice of law is conditioned upon admission to practice of law, and specifically
admission to the bar An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...
of a particular state or other territorial jurisdiction. The
American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acade ...
and the
American Law Institute The American Law Institute (ALI) is a research and advocacy group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and its adaptation to changing social needs ...
are among the organizations that are concerned with the interests of lawyers as a profession and the promulgation of uniform standards of professionalism and ethics, but regulation of the practice of law is left to the individual states, and their definitions vary.


Unauthorized practice of law

"Unauthorized practice of law" (UPL) is an act sometimes prohibited by statute, regulation, or court rules.


Definition

The definition of "unauthorized practice of law" is variable, and is often conclusory and tautological, ''i.e.'', it is the doing of a lawyer's or
counsel A counsel or a counsellor at law is a person who gives advice and deals with various issues, particularly in legal matters. It is a title often used interchangeably with the title of ''lawyer''. The word ''counsel'' can also mean advice given ...
or's work by a non-lawyer for money. There is some agreement that appearing in a legally constituted court in a legal proceeding to represent clients (particularly for a fee) is considered to be unauthorized practice of law. But other variations are subject to interpretation and conflicting regulation, particularly as to the scope and breadth of the prohibition. ''Black's Law Dictionary'' defines unauthorized practice of law as "The practice of law by a person, typically a nonlawyer, who has not been licensed or admitted to practice law in a given jurisdiction." The Restatement (Third) of the Law Governing Lawyers notes:
The definitions and tests employed by courts to delineate unauthorized practice by non-lawyers have been vague or conclusory, while jurisdictions have differed significantly in describing what constitutes unauthorized practice in particular areas.
Certain activities, such as the representation of another person in litigation, are generally proscribed. Even in that area, many jurisdictions recognize exceptions for such matters as small-claims and landlord-tenant tribunals and certain proceedings in administrative agencies. Moreover, many jurisdictions have authorized law students and others not locally admitted to represent indigent persons or others as part of clinical legal education programs. ...
What is more controversial is out-of-court activities, particularly drafting of documents and giving advice, and whether that is considered to be unauthorized practice of law. Some states have defined the "practice of law" to include those who appear as a representative in arbitration or act as arbitrators in disputes. For example, there is a growing conflict between the multijurisdictional practice of law in arbitration proceedings in the financial service industry and state regulation of lawyers. With a few exceptions, the general rule is that an appearance at an arbitration does not constitute the practice of law. . The
United States bankruptcy court United States bankruptcy courts are courts created under Article I of the United States Constitution. The current system of bankruptcy courts was created by the United States Congress in 1978, effective April 1, 1984. United States bankruptcy c ...
for the Eastern District of Tennessee has held that "providing clients with explanations or definitions of such legal terms of art ... is, by itself, giving legal advice." The North Carolina State Bar has held that "definition of lien law terms, warnings regarding time requirements, and reminders about sending out preliminary notices within five to ten days of beginning work, when combined with its preparation of legal documents
n the manner described N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...
constitute providing legal advice."North Carolina State Bar v. Lienguard, Inc.
2014 NCBC 11
/ref> Texas law generally prohibits a person who is not an attorney from representing a client in a personal injury or property damage matter, and punishes a violation as a misdemeanor. Some states also criminalize the separate behavior of falsely claiming to be lawyer (in Texas, for example, this is a felony if done to obtain economic benefit).


Enforcement

Criminal laws and enforcement of "Unauthorized Practice of Law (UPL)" statutes is the organized bar's preferred method. In Florida, the unauthorized practice of law is a third degree felony, which is punishable by up to six months in prison and $5000 in fines. New Jersey has a law which makes it a " disorderly persons offense" to knowingly to engage in the unauthorized practice of law, and a "crime in the fourth degree" to commit UPL if one (a) creates a false impression that one is a lawyer; (b) derives a benefit from UPL, or (c) causes an injury by UPL. In a 2015 survey by the American Bar Association, Florida had the largest budget—$1.8 million—nationwide for prosecuting the unauthorized practice of law. The state has interest in protecting the public from having unqualified persons hold themselves out as licensed professionals, but the existence of laws against unauthorized practice of itself does not guarantee that unlicensed professionals will be detected and those laws enforced.


History and future

The American Bar Association proposed model rules regarding the unauthorized practice of law, which Judge
Richard Posner Richard Allen Posner (; born January 11, 1939) is an American jurist and legal scholar who served as a federal appellate judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1981 to 2017. A senior lecturer at the University of Chicago ...
characterized as an attempt to perpetuate a monopoly to the disadvantage of consumers. The judge observed that the legal profession is "a cartel of providers of services relating to society's laws" which cartel's focus is to restrict entry. "Modern economists call it ' rent seeking', but throughout recorded history, skilled crafts and professions have tried to raise their members' incomes by using the power of the state to limit entry." The practice of law was not formally regulated in Arizona for a time. However, the Arizona Supreme Court found independent inherent authority to regulate the practice of law. Arizona's statute criminalizing unauthorized practice of law was allowed to lapse from a
sunset law In public policy, a sunset provision or sunset clause is a measure within a statute, regulation or other law that provides that the law shall cease to have effect after a specific date, unless further legislative action is taken to extend the law ...
in 1985. Rose suggests that legislative proposals to recriminalize the unauthorized practice of law have heretofore failed because of anti-lawyer sentiment in Arizona politics. Moreover, Rose asserts that resentment lingers from an unpopular interpretation of the old statute in ''State Bar v. Arizona Land Title & Trust Co.'', 90 Ariz. 76 (1961). This ruling imposed sanctions on a title and realty company engaged in drafting contracts. Rose says, "Throughout the country, various jurisdictions have developed numerous tests for defining the practice of law. But none is broader nor more all-encompassing than that articulated in ''Arizona Title''."


Attorney participation

In the United States, the rules of professional conduct generally prohibit an attorney from assisting a non-attorney from engaging in the unauthorized practice of law. An attorney therefore may not partner with or split fees with a non-attorney in the performance of any sort of legal work. Furthermore, an attorney may not employ a disbarred or suspended attorney in a legal practice where former clients of the disbarred or suspended attorney will be represented.


Singapore


Unauthorized practice of law

In Singapore, it is a criminal offence if an unauthorised person pretends to be a qualified lawyer or carries out any act that may be performed only by a qualified lawyer. The relevant provision is section 33 of the Legal Profession Act. The acts that may be performed only by a qualified lawyer are set out in section 33 of the Legal Profession Act and case law.


See also

* Disbarment *
Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vari ...
* Law degree *''
Law Society of British Columbia v. Mangat ''Law Society of British Columbia v Mangat'', 0013 S.C.R. 113 is a leading Supreme Court of Canada decision where the Court held that a non-lawyer may be given the power to practice law under a federal statute even if it is contrary to provincial ...
''


References


External links

* {{Authority control Solicitors Monopoly (economics) Competition law Jurisprudence