‘Unauthorized Practice Of Law’ Rules Promote Racial Injustice — from law.com by Rohan Pavuluri with thanks to Daniel Rodriguez for his Tweet on this
Excerpts:
A less discussed, yet still pernicious, set of policies that must change are the rules lawyers use to regulate their own profession.
Known as unauthorized practice of law, or UPL, rules, every state in America has policies that grant lawyers a monopoly on providing legal advice, prohibiting professionals who are not lawyers from providing meaningful legal assistance. These policies promote racial inequity and guarantee that black Americans don’t have equal opportunities and equal rights under the law.
…
“It should come as no surprise that only 5% of lawyers are black.[3]”
To reform UPL doesn’t mean choosing between regulation and no regulation of the legal industry. It’s a choice between maintaining a status quo where black people are disproportionately excluded from both providing and receiving assistance and a system where we re-regulate the legal industry to make it more inclusive, increasing the supply of vetted, qualified helpers available.
Also see:
- Law School Applications By Black People Are Down This Year — from abovethelaw.com by Kathryn Rubino
Now more than ever, Black Lawyers Matter.