It has been nearly 18 years since the American Bar Association (ABA) House of Delegates approved the Commission on Multijurisdictional Practice’s Report 201B proposing amendments to Model Rule of Professional Conduct 5.5 to address the permissible boundaries of the multijurisdictional practice of law. These amendments intended to clarify (on a national level) when an attorney licensed in one jurisdiction can engage in conduct constituting the practice of law in another jurisdiction without a license in that jurisdiction or special admission to handle a particular case pro hac vice.

The amendments to Rule 5.5 were absolutely necessary nationwide, but the practices they codified were not uniquely groundbreaking. The commission’s report accompanying the amendments readily acknowledged that it drew upon the prior work of many other ABA entities, state and local bar associations, and the Restatement (Third) of the Law Governing Lawyers Section 3(3). Indeed, the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) had opined on the permissible boundaries of the multijurisdictional practice of law as far back as 1990. (See PBA Committee on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Formal Opinion No. 90-02, published March 2, 1990.)

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