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The Unauthorized Practice of Law: Do Good Fences Really Make Good Neighbors—or Even Good Sense?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Abstract
While the legal profession's efforts to suppress the practice of law by non-lawyers go back to colonial times, the modern unauthorized practice movement began in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Its greatest success, however, took place during the 40 years from 1920 to 1960. Recent years have seen the reversal of some of the prior successes in the field, and current challenges to unauthorized practice restrictions raise serious questions about their present validity. Do the benefits to the public from the enforcement of rules against the unauthorized practice of law justify continuation of the effort?
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 1980
References
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188 E.g., In re Opinion of the Justices, 289 Mass. 606, 194 N.E. 313 (1935). But see Grievance Comm. v. Dean, 190 S.W.2d 126 (Tex. Civ. App. 1945).Google Scholar
189 E.g., Lowell Bar Ass'n v. Loeb, 315 Mass. 176, 52 N.E.2d 27 (1943). But see People v. Lawyers Title Corp., 282 N.Y. 513, 27 N.E.2d 30 (1940); People ex rel. Illinois State Bar Ass'n v. Schafer, 404 Ill. 45, 87 N.E.2d 773 (1949).Google Scholar
190 E.g., Cowern V. Nelson, 207 Minn. 642, 290 N.W. 795 (1940); Conway-Bogue Realty Inv. Co. v. Denver Bar Ass'n, 135 Colo. 398, 312 P.2d 998 (1957). But see In re Brotherhood of R.R. Trainmen, 13 Ill. 2d 391, 150 N.E.2d 163 (1958).Google Scholar
191 E.g., Arkansas Bar Ass'n v. Union Nat'l Bank, 224 Ark. 48, 273 S.W.2d 408 (1954).Google Scholar
192 E.g., Bay County Bar Ass'n v. Finance Sys., Inc., 345 Mich. 434, 76 N.W.2d 23 (1956).Google Scholar
193 E.g., Title Guar. Co. v. Denver Bar Ass'n, 135 Colo. 423, 312 P.2d 1011 (1957).Google Scholar
194 E.g., Washington State Bar Ass'n v. Washington Ass'n of Realtors, 41 Wash. 2d 697, 251 P.2d 619 (1952); Arkansas Bar Ass'n v. Block, 230 Ark. 430, 323 S.W.2d 912, cert. denied, 361 U.S. 836 (1959).Google Scholar
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197 E.g., People ex rel. Chicago Bar Ass'n v. Goodman, 366 Ill. 346, 8 N.E.2d 941 (1937).Google Scholar
198 E.g., Chicago Bar Ass'n v. United Taxpayers, 312 Ill. App. 243, 38 N.E. 2d 349 (1941).Google Scholar
199 E.g., Stack v. P.G. Garage, Inc., 7 N.J. 118, 80 A.2d 545 (1951).Google Scholar
200 E.g., Realty Appraisals Co. v. Astor-Broadway Holding Corp., 5 A.D.2d 36, 169 N.Y.S.2d 121 (1957).Google Scholar
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204 E.g., Gardner V. Conway, 234 Minn. 468, 48 N.W.2d 788 (1951); Agran v. Shapiro, 127 Cal. App. 2d 807, 273 P.2d 619 (1954).Google Scholar
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206 See In re Brotherhood of R.R. Trainmen, 13 Ill. 2d 391, 150 N.E.2d 163 (1958); In re O'Neill, 5 F. Supp. 465 (E.D.N.Y. 1933); In re Maclub of America, Inc., 295 Mass. 45, 3 N.E.2d 272 (1936).Google Scholar
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209 Id. at 122, 125.Google Scholar
210 Hale, supra note 167, at 6. The texts of those Statements of Principles in effect at any given time may be found in the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory. E.g., 3 Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory 121A-30A (Summit, N.J.: Martindale-Hubbell, Inc., 1960).Google Scholar
211 People ex rel. Committee on Grievances v. Denver Clearing House Banks, 99 Colo. 50, 59 P.2d 468 (1936).Google Scholar
212 “Defendant,” as defined in Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, at 687, “1. Defending, being on the defensive” (2d ed. Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam Co., 1953).Google Scholar
213 Wayland Cedarquist, The 1962 Arizona Constitutional Amendment, 28 Unauthorized Prac. News, No. 3, 1962, at 252.Google Scholar
214 Id. at 256–57.Google Scholar
215 Ariz. Const. art. 26, § 1 (1910, amended 1962).Google Scholar
216 Morley v. J. Pagel Realty & Ins., 27 Ariz. App. 62, 550 P.2d 1104 (1976).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
217 Neale, Olson V., 116 Ariz. 522, 570 P.2d 209 (1977).Google Scholar
218 Chicago Bar Ass'n v. Quinlan & Tyson, Inc., 34 Ill. 2d 116, 214 N.E.2d 771 (1966).Google Scholar
219 NAACP v. Button, 371 U.S. 415 (1963).Google Scholar
220 Brotherhood of R.R. Trainmen v. Virginia ex rel. Virginia State Bar, 377 U.S. 1 (1964).Google Scholar
221 UMW Dist. 12 v. Illinois State Bar Ass'n, 389 U.S. 217 (1967).Google Scholar
222 94 A.B.A. Reports 392 (1969).Google Scholar
223 Florida Bar v. Consolidated Business & Legal Forms, Inc., No. 53,702 Fla. (Sup. Ct.) (decision pending). Case noted in 66 A.B.A.J. 27–28 (1980).Google Scholar
224 Surety Title Ins. Agency v. Virginia State Bar, 431 F. Supp. 298 (E.D. Va. 1977), vacated and remanded (proper procedure was for the federal court to withhold final decision pending final resolution of a state proceeding in the matter), Virginia State Bar v. Surety Title Ins. Agency, 571 F.2d 205 (1978), cert. denied, 436 U.S. 941 (1978).Google Scholar
225 See Lawscope, , New UPL Process Set to Begin in Virginia, 65 A.B.A.J. 542 (1979).Google Scholar
226 Podgers, James, Statements of Principles: Are They on the Way Out 66 A.B.A.J. 129 (1980).Google Scholar
227 Id. at 129–30.Google Scholar
228 Id. at 129.Google Scholar
229 Id. at 130.Google Scholar
230 Legislation might be thought to be such a public voice were it not for the fact that unauthorized practice legislation did not come about as a result of popular demand but rather through the efforts of a strong pressure group—the legal profession.Google Scholar
231 See Morrison, Alan B., Revising the Definition of the Practice of Law as a Way of Increasing the Availability of “Legal” Services (paper presented at the Second National Conference on Legal Services and the Public, Dec. 7–8, 1979). See also id., Revising the Definition of the Practice of Law as a Way of Increasing the Availability of “Legal” Services, 66 A.B.A.J. 248 (1980).Google Scholar
232 See notes 216, 219 supra.Google Scholar
233 George Orwell, 1984 (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1949).Google Scholar
234 An examination of the decisions in 144 unauthorized practice cases (being all of the cases cited in Fischer & Lachmann, supra note 5, at 352–57, for the period from 1908 to 1969 in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, and New York), reveals only 12 that involve specific injury, either alleged or actual, to anyone. It might be argued that some of the 132 cases that did not involve actual injury may have been instituted by bar associations, attorneys general, or others in response to complaints of injury. Nothing in the decisions suggests that this is so, however, and the assumption that it is so seems a weak foundation for restrictive rules. The fact remains that the cases themselves show comparatively little actual injury to anyone by reason of the activities of unauthorized practitioners.Google Scholar
235 However, a comparatively recent development in the insurance field is the independent insurance consultant whose object is not to sell insurance but to give advice for a fee. Such a consultant might offer to the public valuable help in estate planning without risk of injury to the public by reason of either incompetence or conflict of interest.Google Scholar
236 See NAACP v. Button, 371 U.S. 415 (1963); Brotherhood of R.R. Trainmen V. Virginia ex rel. Virginia State Bar, 377 U.S. 1 (1964); UMW Dist. 12 v. Illinois State Bar Ass'n, 389 U.S. 217 (1967).Google Scholar
237 UMW Dist. 12 v. Illinois State Bar Ass'n, 389 U.S. 217 (1967).Google Scholar
238 “In [this case] … there was absolutely no indication that the theoretically imaginable divergence between the interests of union and member ever actually arose in the context of a particular lawsuit; indeed … the Illinois Supreme Court itself described the possibility of conflicting interest as, at most, ‘conceivabl[e].’”Id. at 224.Google Scholar
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240 Subsequent to the decisions in the lay intermediaries cases, one courageous bar committee attempted to do just that, but was only partly successful. See American Bar Association Special Committee on the Availability of Legal Services, Report on Group Legal Services, 93 A.B.A. Reports 518 (1968); action by ABA House of Delegates deferred, 93 A.B.A. Reports 351–52 (1968); recommendations from Availability Committee's report offered as amendment to proposed ABA Code of Professional Responsibility, defeated, 94 A.B.A. Reports 392 (1969).Google Scholar
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242 See section A supra.Google Scholar
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