ABA pulls exam requirements from multijurisdictional rules.

• Date: 28 August 2002

Byline: Jane Pribek

The American Bar Association's policy-making body gave a thumbs-up to model rules allowing multijurisdictional practice (MJP) at the ABA Annual Meeting earlier this month in Washington D.C.

On Aug. 11, the MJP proposal "sailed through the ABA House of Delegates ... with hardly a hitch," reports the ABA Journal.

But if you ask Milwaukee lawyer Richard J. Podell, of Richard J. Podell & Associates S.C., the waters were extremely rough at times, when it came to revising the MJP proposal so it would be friendly toward Wisconsin's 20,000-plus lawyers.

The new ethics rules allow a lawyer licensed and in good standing in one state to practice in another state temporarily if he:

dPerforms nonlitigation work that arises out of, or is reasonably related to, the lawyer's home-state practice.

dRepresents clients in, or is participating in, arbitration or mediation.

dProvides litigation-related services in a state where he is or expects to be admitted.

dWorks in association with a lawyer licensed in the host state.

The new rules additionally provide that lawyers applying for admission by motion should be licensed in good standing in another state and should have engaged in law practice for at least five of the last seven years. Further, applicants must have a degree from an ABA-accredited law school, and may not be involved in any current lawyer disciplinary proceedings.

Wisconsin-Friendly Deletions

Absent from the rules were two provisions, which would adversely affect Wisconsin lawyers.

First, an initial draft, put together by the ABA's Section of Legal...