Shutterstock Shutterstock Jonathan Hawkins Jonathan Hawkins (John Disney/ ALM)

Fairly regularly, lawyers move to Georgia to begin new jobs as in-house counsel. Certain questions naturally will arise. To accept an in-house position and provide legal services in Georgia, does a lawyer have to become licensed here? What are the consequences, if any, of the in-house lawyer not having a Georgia license? What if the lawyer does not have an active license anywhere?

Before taking that in-house position in Georgia, an out-of-state lawyer should know the answers to those questions. Some possible consequences of providing legal services as an unlicensed in-house lawyer include criminal sanction for unauthorized practice of law, possible loss of the ability of the client to assert the attorney-client privilege, or reprimand, suspension or disbarment of the attorney.

Under certain circumstances, Georgia allows in-house counsel to perform legal services for their employers, even if they are not licensed in the state. The rationale for this license exception is that a lawyer's ability to represent her organizational client generally serves the interests of the employer and does not create an unreasonable risk to the client because it is well situated to assess the lawyer's qualifications and the quality of the lawyer's work.