Model Rule 5.5: Unauthorized Practice of Law; Multijurisdictional Practice of Law

When it applies

This comes up whenever a lawyer crosses state lines to help a client, works remotely for out-of-state clients, or sets up an office in a jurisdiction where they lack a license; the MPRE tests whether the lawyer's conduct fits one of the narrow multijurisdictional safe harbors. It also arises in fact patterns involving in-house counsel, arbitration practice, or lawyers providing services that federal or other law specifically authorizes them to provide, such as practice before a federal agency.

What the rule requires

• A lawyer may not practice law in a jurisdiction where doing so violates that jurisdiction's regulation of the legal profession
• A lawyer may not establish an office or other systematic and continuous presence in a jurisdiction for the practice of law without being admitted there, except as authorized by the Rules or other law (e.g., the in-house counsel and federally authorized practice provisions); the temporary-practice exceptions do not authorize a systematic and continuous presence
• A lawyer may not hold out to the public or otherwise represent that they are admitted to practice in a jurisdiction where they are not licensed
• A lawyer may not assist a nonlawyer or another lawyer in conduct that constitutes unauthorized practice of law
• A lawyer who is suspended or disbarred may not engage in the practice of law during that period
• Temporary multijurisdictional practice is permitted only when it fits specific categories tied to association with local counsel, pending or potential proceedings, ADR, or matters reasonably related to the lawyer's home-jurisdiction practice

Exceptions

• Temporary practice is allowed if undertaken in association with a lawyer admitted in the jurisdiction who actively participates in the matter
• Temporary practice is allowed for services reasonably related to a pending or potential proceeding before a tribunal, if the lawyer, or a person the lawyer is assisting, is or reasonably expects to be authorized to appear (e.g., pro hac vice)
• Temporary practice is allowed for services reasonably related to a pending or potential arbitration, mediation, or other alternative dispute resolution proceeding arising out of or reasonably related to the lawyer's home-jurisdiction practice, provided the services are not ones for which the forum requires pro hac vice admission
• Temporary practice is allowed for services that arise out of or are reasonably related to the lawyer's practice in a jurisdiction where the lawyer is admitted
• In-house counsel may provide legal services, even on a systematic and continuous basis, in a jurisdiction where they are not licensed if the services are for their employer or its organizational affiliates and are not services for which the forum requires pro hac vice admission; separately, a lawyer may provide services that federal or other law authorizes the lawyer to provide in the jurisdiction

How the MPRE tests Model Rule 5.5

• Students forget that the ADR and catch-all temporary-practice exceptions require the out-of-state work to arise out of or be 'reasonably related' to the lawyer's home practice, not just any legal work (the local-counsel and tribunal-related exceptions have no such home-practice requirement)
• Questions test whether a suspended or disbarred lawyer can do any legal work at all, even unpaid or behind-the-scenes tasks, which is prohibited
• MPRE fact patterns often disguise UPL assistance as delegating substantive legal judgment to a paralegal or nonlawyer employee, which crosses the line even though nonlawyer assistance is otherwise permitted under Rule 5.3
• Students confuse 'admission pro hac vice' (permission to appear in litigation) with the broader temporary-practice safe harbors that do not require court permission at all