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The Birth Of The Movement To Prohibit The Unauthorized Practice Of Law, Laurel A. Rigertas

Faculty Peer-Reviewed Publications

Despite its omnipresence in the field, there is no comprehensive history of the legal profession's effort to prohibit the unauthorized practice of law ("UPL"), by persons or entities who do not have a license to engage in such work. Drawing on original historical research, this article provides the most comprehensive view, to date, of the birth of the modem movement to prohibit the unauthorized practice of law. While bar associations' efforts to prohibit the unauthorized practice of law exploded nationwide in the 1930s, they sowed the seeds for the movement during the several decades preceding the Great Depression. Focusing on …