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July 21, 2003

Competition & Ethics Issues of UPL Are on ABA Agenda in S.F.

Filed under: pre-06-2006 — David Giacalone @ 4:15 pm


If you’re going to the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco in August, consider attending the panel on “Competition and Ethical Issues in the Unauthorized Practice of Law Debate,” presented by the Antitrust Section and held Aug. 11th (2:00 PM). Click here to see the Section’s full agenda.


Two of the panel’s four members represent strongly opposing views on the role of nonlawyers in real estate settlements and on the general use of the “definition of the practice of law” to restrict the provision of law-related services by nonlawyers.  They are FTC General Counsel William E. Kovacic, and president-elect of the North Carolina State Bar, Dudley Humphrey.  Humphrey chaired the Ad Hoc Committee of the Council of the North Carolina State Bar on Residential Real Estate Closings.


The FTC and the Justice Department submitted a joint letter to the North Carolina State Bar (in late 2001) opposing a proposed ethics opinion that would have required attorneys to be present at all real estate closings.  Humphrey played a prominent role drafting a response to that letter, dated 12/14/01 (but I couldn’t find the letter online). He was also a member of the ABA Task Force on the Model Definition of the Practice of Law.   On Dec. 20, 2002, a joint FTC/DOJ letter was submitted to that ABA Task Force opposing attempts to restrict competition from nonlawyers through broad definitions of the “practice of law.” (Dec. 20, 2002).


We discussed these issues at length in our July 3, 2003 posting. and our July 1st posting.  The advocacy efforts of the federal agencies (along with a slew of other commentors) helped convince the ABA task force to withdraw the proposed model definition of the practice of law.   However, the agencies’ letter apparently had little effect on the resulting North Carolina ethics opinions, which were issued on Jan. 23, 2003. See Authorized Practice Advisory Opinion 2002-1.



For more background information on this topic, see the submission of Tom Lammert General Counsel, National Real Estate Information Services, to the FTC’s Public Workshop on the Possible Anticompetitive Efforts to Restrict Competition on the Internet (Oct., 2002), which is entitled State Regulation Impeding Competition on the Internet for Real Estate Settlement and Information Services.  Also check out the recent Legal Times article by HALT’s Executive Director, Jim Turner, Lawyers vs. Nonlawyers.


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Thanks to Steve Covell at La-Legal annotated  for adding us to his comprehensive Legal Beetle directory of “20,000” law-related sites. 

2 Comments

  1. You’re very welcome. I enjoy your blog.

    Comment by Steve Covell — July 21, 2003 @ 6:07 pm

  2. You’re very welcome. I enjoy your blog.

    Comment by Steve Covell — July 21, 2003 @ 6:07 pm

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