March 7, 2002
John A. Holtaway
ABA Center for Professional Responsibility
541 N. Fairbanks Court, 14 th Floor
Chicago, Illinois 60611
Re: Comments of the Louisiana State Bar Association (LSBA) Multijurisdictional Practice(MJP) Committee on the Interim Report of the ABA Commission on Multijurisdictional Practice
Dear Mr. Holtaway and Members of the Commission:
The LSBA MJP Committee was formed in January 2, 2001 and its mission is to monitor the work of the ABA Commission on Multijurisdictional Practice and to research, study and report on the application of current ethics and bar admission rules in Louisiana to the multijurisdictional practice of law. A copy of our Committee roster is attached.
The LSBA MJP Committee has conducted a review of the Interim Report of the ABA Commission on Multijurisdictional Practice and has reached a consensus that it is in agreement with the recommendations of the ABA Commission with the adoption of the following safe harbors so long as they are temporary as set forth in the ABA report and subject to reciprocal discipline:
1) Working as co-counsel with a lawyer admitted to practice in the jurisdiction;
2) Professional services that a non-lawyer is legally permitted to render;
3) Work ancillary to pending or prospective litigation or administrative agency proceedings;
4) Representation of clients in, or ancillary to, an alternative dispute resolution;
5) Non-litigation work ancillary to the lawyer's representation of a client in the lawyer's home state(i.e.,the jurisdiction in which the lawyer is licensed to practice law) or ancillary to the lawyer's work on a matter that is in the lawyer's home state;
6) Services involving primarily federal law, international law, the law of a foreign jurisdiction or the law of the lawyer's home state, and
7)Work by a lawyer who is an employee of a client or its commonly owned organizational affiliates and work in a 'host state'(i.e. a jurisdiction in which the lawyer is not licensed to practice law) that the lawyer is authorized by federal law, state law or court order to render.
There was much discussion about the Common Sense Proposal. This proposal failed by one vote when considered by the LSBA MJP Committee. Two members of the Committee who were in favor of the Common Sense Proposal adopted the majority position of the Committee in order to facilitate the committee's process and move it forward. The Committee voted in favor of Recommendations 1, 2, 3 (and all of its sub-parts), 5, 6 (but not 6.1) and 7 (and all of its sub-parts). Recommendation #4 was referred to the LSBA Committee on Bar Admissions and the LSBA MJP Committee took no position concerning this recommendation. Louisiana already has adopted a foreign legal consultant rule as recommended in Recommendations #5 and #5.1. The Committee also voted to not take action regarding recommendations involving federal courts.
The LSBA MJP Committee thanks the Commission for all of its hard work and effort.
Sincerely,
Joseph L. Shea, Jr.
Chair, LSBA Multijurisdictional Practice Committee
JLS/cs
enclosure