Your Law Firm Has Lawyers Working Remotely. Where, exactly?

Many California law firms now have lawyers working remotely. If not managed properly, that can create issues under the Rules of Professional Conduct. Firms should identify and manage these issues, as outlined in Formal Opinion Interim No. 20-0004 issued by the State Bar of California’s Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct (COPRAC).

If your firm has lawyers working remotely in other states, ABA Formal Opinion 495 is a helpful resource to start. But you need to analyze potentially significant additional issues, including the potential unauthorized practice of law and other applicable rules and laws in those states, too.  

For lawyers working remotely, several threshold questions arise:

• Are they licensed in the jurisdictions in which they live?
• Are they working in a jurisdiction in which they are not licensed?
• What local state rules govern their practice as remote lawyers?
• For in-house lawyers, do they have the required registration for the states where they live?

 Law firms with lawyers working remotely, and the lawyers themselves, need to analyze these questions and the specific rules and facts related to their remote work for states where they are licensed and states where they are located. For California lawyers and law firms, complying with California’s rules is required, of course, but it may not be all that’s required.  

O’Rielly & Roche can help your law firm navigate these regulatory questions and develop effective practices for managing the remote lawyers in your firm to best comply with the applicable rules.