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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.