Legal Ethics Group Recommends New Rules for Multijurisdictional Practice - Articles

All Content


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Apr 18, 2022

The Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers (APRL) is recommending that the American Bar Association replace Model Rule 5.5 with a new rule "to better reflect the way lawyers practice in the 21st Century.” The group’s proposal would allow a lawyer admitted in any U.S. jurisdiction to practice law and represent willing clients without regard to the geographic location of the lawyer or the client, the forum where the services are to be provided, or the rules that would apply at a given moment in time. Lawyers would still be subject to judicial authority in each state and the disciplinary jurisdiction of their state of licensure and any other state where they practice. The proposal was developed by the APRL’s Future of Lawyering Committee and approved by its board in March. Read the committee report and a letter from APRL President and Memphis lawyer Brian Faughnan to the ABA explaining the proposal.