GRECAA, Inc., a private bar association also known as the Georgia Real Estate Closing Attorneys Association, brought suit seeking injunctive relief against Omni Title Services, Inc. on the basis that Omni was engaged in the unauthorized practice of law UPL. The trial court granted Omni’s motion to dismiss due to GRECAA’s lack of standing to bring the suit. We affirm. 1. The Georgia Supreme Court has the inherent and exclusive authority to govern the practice of law in Georgia. Eckles v. Atlanta Tech. Group , 267 Ga. 801, 804 485 SE2d 22 1997; Huber v. State , 234 Ga. 357, 359 216 SE2d 73 1975. “This authority necessarily includes jurisdiction over the unlicensed practice of law.” State Bar Rule 14-1.1.
2. GRECAA contends that as an organized bar association, it has standing to bring suit against Omni for UPL pursuant to OCGA § 15-19-58 a. That statute provides, in pertinent part, that “either the State Bar of Georgia, the Judicial Council of this state, or any organized bar association of this state is authorized to institute” an action seeking injunctive relief against any corporation “when it determines after investigation that such . . . corporation: 1 Is engaged in the unauthorized or unlawful practice of law.” Id. OCGA § 15-19-58 was enacted by Ga. L. 1946, p. 171, and thus predates by many years the action taken by the General Assembly in 1963 proposing the creation of the State Bar of Georgia Ga. L. 1963, pp. 70-72; the order of this court entered December 6, 1963, creating and organizing the State Bar of Georgia 219 Ga. 873; and, the cases of Wallace v. Wallace , 225 Ga. 102 166 SE2d 718, and Sams v. Olah , 225 Ga. 497 169 SE2d 790, decided by this court in 1969. In these two cases, this court unconditionally asserted its inherent power to govern the practice of law in this state. Cit. Huber , supra, 234 Ga. at 359. We find no meaningful distinction between OCGA § 15-19-52, addressed in Huber , and OCGA § 15-19-58 when we conclude that OCGA § 15-19-58 “no longer controls the practice of law in Georgia.” Huber , supra at 360. As we held in Eckles , supra, 267 Ga. at 804, “no statute is controlling as to the civil regulation of the practice of law in this state. Only this Court has the inherent power to govern the practice of law in Georgia.”
