Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee |
OPINION 96-101
SUBJECT: Ability of non-Pennsylvania admitted attorneys to open offices for the practice of
"immigration law," "social security law," or other types of "federal administrative
practice."
It is the OPINION of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Unauthorized Practice of Law
Committee that attorneys who ostensibly practice in a field of federal law specialty cannot open
an office in Pennsylvania for the practice of law limited to that particular specialty, without being
admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. The purpose of the
Unauthorized Practice Laws is to prevent individuals who are not admitted to practice before the
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from opening offices that indicate that they are engaged in any
phase of the practice of law, since to hold otherwise would permit unregulated and uncontrolled
expansion into other areas of state law which require the unique knowledge and abilities
possessed only by attorneys who have been admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania, and would permit such expansion into the dissemination of advise based upon
Pennsylvania law by attorneys who are not admitted to practice and consequently are not required
to adhere to the Rules of Professional Conduct, and the discipline inherent in the violation
thereof, by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
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