One Bar Admission To Rule Them All?; Above The Law, May 6, 2022

 JAMES GOODNOW, Above The Law; One Bar Admission To Rule Them All?

"After several years of research, discussion, and drafting, the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers (APRL) published an open letter to the ABA late last month proposing significant changes to Model Rule 5.5, governing the unauthorized practice of law. If adopted, the new Rule 5.5 would permit a lawyer admitted anywhere in the United States to provide legal services in any jurisdiction that has adopted the new rule, without regard to physical presence, state licensure, or any other geographic factor. One of the longest-lived protective guardrails in the history of American law would be largely dismantled...

The original rules against UPL had two practical purposes: protecting the public from bad lawyering and protecting lawyers from out-of-state competition...

Let’s face it, this collapsing of borders is already happening. Consider the Uniform Bar Examination, which is currently adopted in 37 states. The law we have to study to actually get admitted to any individual jurisdiction is increasingly the same. What’s more, many states have, for years, allowed established attorneys the ability to waive into other state bars on motion alone, without taking the bar exam again. And this model isn’t without precedent. CPAs take a single national exam for their certification that’s been administered for over 100 years, and APRL specifically cited the national driver’s license model in their arguments supporting the new proposed Rule 5.5.

If protecting the public from bad lawyering is no longer a strong rationale for our existing UPL framework, the only justification we’re left with is protecting attorneys from competition. Given the access to justice problems we’re already trying to deal with, this seems to be prioritizing lawyers’ interests ahead of those of the public. Wealthy clients want the best counsel for their needs, no matter where that counsel happens to live and practice. Working-class clients just want an attorney they can afford to see them through the biggest challenges in their life. In both instances, expanding the pool of attorneys is a positive.

Every step our industry takes toward the modern world is a step in the right direction. The proposal makes sense conceptually and from a business standpoint. Reducing artificial barriers to practicing law may invite competition to come into our home states, but it also allows each of us to go out and offer our services to compete on a national scale. For the sake of our clients, and the sake of ourselves, let’s move forward and stop pretending the world ends at the state line."