Hardinger & Tanenholz has recently fielded questions from several contract attorney candidates who are not admitted to the DC Bar regarding their eligibility to perform document review work in DC. Specifically, there seems to be genuine confusion about whether it is necessary to be admitted to the DC Bar, or whether admission to another state is sufficient.
The answer is, in general, contract attorneys performing document review must be admitted to the DC Bar.
The unauthorized practice of law is governed by District of Columbia Court of Appeals (“COA”) Rule 49, and we encourage all attorneys seeking to work in the District to read it. In 2005, the COA’s Committee on the Unauthorized Practice of Law (“UPL”) issued an opinion stating that Rule 49 does, in fact, apply to contract lawyers working within the District (see http://tiny.cc/OP_16_05). The Opinion held that, in general, all contract attorneys performing document review must be admitted to the DC Bar.
Specifically, the Committee opined that even if a contract lawyer is performing work that is similar to or overlapping with work performed by paralegals, such as first level document review, the attorney is engaging in the practice of law “if the person is being held out, and billed out, as a lawyer . . .” (16-05 at 5).
So, what to do if you are a contact attorney not admitted to the DC Bar, but you want to work in DC? Opinion 16-05 urges all contract attorneys who are engaging in the practice of law to seek admission. It warns, “Failure [to apply for admission] may jeopardize the lawyer’s ability to continue to practice law in the District on a contract or other basis. Failure to do so also places the lawyer in jeopardy of discipline in jurisdictions where the lawyer is admitted . . .” (16-05 at 7).
If you are not admitted to the D.C. bar, there is nothing keeping you from working as a paralegal or law clerk, even if you are admitted to practice law in another jurisdiction. Simply make your bar status very clear to anyone with whom you have professional contact, especially your employment agency and the legal service provider who will be supervising your work. You must never hold yourself out as an attorney in DC if you are not a member of the DC Bar, even if you are fully-licensed in another jurisdiction. (See Rule 49). Remind your employer that you should not be held-out or billed out as an attorney.
Finally, we encourage all contract attorneys to read the ethical rules and relevant UPL Committee decisions (http://tiny.cc/UPLWebsite) and take full responsibility for their own professional conduct. Attorneys should not risk their bar standing by relying on the representations of employment agencies and law firms that may or may not be fully aware of the applicable ethical rules.
This blog was written by Julia Hardinger, co-founder of Hardinger & Tanenholz LLP, a unique Discovery Counsel law firm that specializes in all aspects of discovery, including the end-to-end management of large-scale document reviews. This blog is the personal opinion of the author and not intended as legal advice.
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"If you are not admitted to the D.C. bar, there is nothing keeping you from working as a paralegal or law clerk, even if you are admitted to practice law in another jurisdiction."
ReplyDeleteNothing except the fact that if you have a JD, they won't hire you.
Do you realize how biased this is? Where is the article on the antics of law firms contracting attorneys as "law clerks", and plugging all management of projects with lower level associates who have no idea what they're doing (but they are the only "attorneys" on the case)? And where is the article on the behavior of the DC Bar Committee (one of the members who drafted that Rule, is in a firm that does a ton of this business--could one assume he helped draft those rules to his/a law firm's advantage)? Who, exactly, do you think is holding the ethical line here....I'll tell you, the over-maligned attorney working in this field trying to hold on to their ethics, their dignity and courtesy to other members of their profession who keep questioning it. Well-written article--now, where are the other two?
ReplyDeleteSo....you are contacted by an agency for a job, give you latest resume (stating your bar memberships), they send them to the law firm who tells the agency if they want DC Bar'd only or not, your resume is accepted and you show up for briefing of the case/at that time you sign further documents swearing that all you've told them so far is true, and then you begin work. During that work you stay alert to any violations of law that you might see by their client/and keeping an eye on the firm you're working for as well--oh, and also making sure your agency doesn't stab you in the back at the same time. All this time, you are fully cognizant of the rules governing your ethics and conduct as an attorney, have lived & paid for that right for years. I'm curious over your blog, because at what stage do we change their conduct or ever hide what we are? What you're really saying is "if you think anyone in that chain is acting in an unethical manner" you should not take the job/quit the job/demand your employer or the firm act responsibly. Madam, I hate to inform you of this but if that is how everyone working in this industry approached the DC Bar/law firm/temp agency antics, we would all be unemployed and the only people functioning in this industry would be the vendors running the databases.
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding us? They are sending our jobs to India and you worry about this??? Shame on you!
ReplyDeleteThanks to everybody who commented on Julia’s blog.
ReplyDelete6:57: The purpose of the blog was simply to point out that Opinion 16-05 held that attorneys performing document review in DC should be members of the DC bar. We weren’t attempting to criticize or justify the opinion itself, but were instead commenting on what it said and the consequences of non-compliance.
With regard to your first idea for another article, we certainly agree that its incredibly irresponsible to let inexperienced or incapable associates manage document review projects. We are hoping to write more about our concepts of proper supervision and management.
With regard to your idea for article about the behavior of the DC Bar Committee, we admit to not knowing anything about that situation. Please feel free to let us know more about the specifics and we would be happy to consider writing more about it.
7:20: We recognize your frustration with the conduct of many players in the document review chain. We are simply saying that the DC Bar’s Committee on the Unauthorized practice of law has stated pretty clearly that if you are being held out or billed out as an attorney, you need to be a member of the DC Bar, even if you are working on a contract basis through an agency. We welcome anybody presenting us with an alternative reading of Opinion 16-05. We also recognize (and are frustrated) that many employment agencies and law firms in DC simply ignore this rule. In fact, because the violation of this rule is so open and widespread, many honest contract attorneys are simply unaware (or cannot believe) that such a rule exists. That is one of the primary purposes we wrote this blog. We aren’t asking you to monitor anybody else in the chain, we are simply saying that if you are performing document review without a license, you risk sanctions from the Bar. The fact that staffing agency and/or law firm signed off on the job will not likely provide any protection for you.
9:27: We believe that outsourcing has become such a hot topic because the Legal Process Outsourcing (“LPO”) companies have done an excellent job of suggesting that all US law firms use $300 per hour associates for document review. In comparison, hiring an Indian counterpart may seem like a bargain. We tell our clients that the actual costs of document review by fully-licensed US contract attorneys are dramatically lower than the LPOs claim. While it may seem that everyone is sending document review work overseas, we are pleased to report that most of our clients prefer licensed US attorneys, as long as the price is reasonable.
So when is the DC Bar going to go after all the firms in town that regularly flout this rule? Probably never.
ReplyDeleteNah, if they ever get bother putting any muscle behind this they'll just go after the poor unwashed temps who have no one to stand up for them.
I just received a letter from the D.C. Court of Appeals threatening me with practicing without a license for doing doc review in D.C. They sent out 500 such letters. Why aren't they going after the law firms and agencies? They are not....
ReplyDelete