What's a little UPL between friends?

Making the social media rounds today is the Matter of Yu, a disciplinary decision out of New York, that is a case study in how not to be My Cousin Vinny.

To quickly summarize:

• The respondent attorney is not licensed in Virginia.

• Nonetheless, he appeared on behalf of a friend in a traffic matter in Virginia court. He claimed that he didn’t intend to actually appear, but just couldn’t help jumping in.

• He was not properly dressed. The opinion does not share what he was wearing, but I suspect it was something far enough out-of-uniform for court personnel to mention, not just too-casual shoes or a missing necktie. (Note: I did not locate a definitive Virginia courtroom attire policy for lawyers following an admittedly quick search, but I did find something from Chesapeake suggesting that a coat and tie for men, or equivalent for women, is appropriate.)

• He was asked if he was a licensed attorney in Virginia. He replied in the affirmative.

• While he may have been a licensed attorney (elsewhere) and physically present in Virginia, he was not in fact licensed to practice law in Virginia.

• He ended up being charged with unauthorized practice of law, being fined, and sentenced to 10 days in jail (suspended) in Virginia.

  • During the investigation, he testified:

    “[Judge Shah] did not ask me if I was admitted to practice in Virginia. He asked me, specifically, whether I was a licensed attorney in Virginia. So it was . . . I knew what he was asking me. I just interpreted it a little differently than he had . . . . I just thought there was like some ambiguity in his question."

    The respondent explained that he owned a home in Virginia and was working at home, and therefore, he believed that he had a home office in Virginia.

• The New York Grievance Committee for the Second, Eleventh, and Thirteenth Judicial Districts charged him with engaging in conduct (8.4(c) and (d), for those of you keeping track), and he has now been suspended from practice for one year in New York, where he actually had been admitted.

Whew. That is quite the disciplinary onion. Some take-aways? First, the obvious: Don’t practice law where you’re not admitted, or otherwise allowed to participate (such as an in-house counsel registration or pro hac vice authority). You surely don’t want to risk your livelihood (or, even if you don’t practice too much like this lawyer, your reputation) to jump in and help a friend with a traffic ticket. (So, maybe the second take-away is impulse control. Just offer moral support from the pews. It’ll be fine.)

And, when you’re questioned about your admission, don’t lie. As always, lying exacerbates the problem and can turn a reprimand into a suspension. And really, don’t try to be too cute or clever. You know what the judge means when they ask if you’re a licensed attorney. Chances are, if the respondent had just said, “I do work from home here, but no, I am not admitted,” he would have just been kicked back into the gallery and we never would have heard of him.

Finally, and this is a small point, find the local rules and dress appropriately; if there are no local rules, err on the side of business formal. My own law firm’s dress code is “clothes”—we trust our people (from assistant through managing partner) to dress for the occasion; if we didn’t trust them to put a suit on for court without also telling them they could only wear jeans on Friday even if they were just sitting in their office writing a brief, why would we trust them to actually write that brief? But anyway. I don’t like wearing a lawyer costume either, but it’s what I signed up for.

Image is of the Augusta County Courthouse, which may or may not have been the courthouse in which all of this went down (any Virginia people want to clarify). By ZeWrestler - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21667279.