Defining Unauthorized Practice Can Create As Many Difficulties as Trying to Locate It

A patchwork of state definitions, exceptions, policies and procedures, along with limited resources for implementation, complicates drawing a bead on the unauthorized practice of law, speakers and audience members alike made clear at the second ABA UPL School, held April 17-18 in Chicago.

The problem was highlighted when audience members pulled out their smartphones to text their responses to a series of general questions about UPL posed by moderator William D. Slease at the conference’s first session. Slease is chief disciplinary counsel for the New Mexico Supreme Court’s disciplinary board.

The responses to Slease’s questions demonstrated the consistency of inconsistency ...