In last week’s post we discussed a recent opinion from the District of Columbia Court of Appeals that addressed the issue of whether an attorney who is not a member of the District of Columbia Bar may nevertheless practice law from the attorney’s residence in the District of Columbia under the “incidental and temporary practice” exception of Rule 49(c)(13). As we learned, according to the court, attorneys working remotely in D.C. during the pandemic are in luck: the court concluded that it’s perfectly ethical to do so.
But what about other jurisdictions? Is it permissible for lawyers to work remotely even in jurisdictions in which they’re not licensed?
This is an important question to ask since due to concerns about COVID-19, so many lawyers have retreated from their city homes and practices to work from more remote locations. If you’re one of those lawyers who happens to be working from a location in Florida, despite not being licensed to practice law there, you’re in luck: the Florida State Bar Standing Committee on the Unlicensed Practice of Law (Committee) recently weighed in on this issue in August.
The issue that the Committee considered in Advisory Opinion 2019-4 was whether it is ethically permissible for lawyers to practice law remotely from their homes in Florida in situations where the lawyers are unlicensed in Florida and employed by firms located in other states, but have temporarily moved to Florida during the pandemic and are working on matters unrelated to Florida laws.
The petitioning attorney explained during the hearing on this issue that his law firm was using a cloud-based software system for remote working. He described the IT setup as follows:
The fact that the attorney was practicing from Florida temporarily was particularly relevant to the Committee. Notably, at the very outset, the Committee highlighted the fact that the petitioning attorney had no plans to establish a permanent office in Florida:
Also of import to the Committee was the testimony of one of the witnesses, an attorney, who weighed in on the future of remote working and its impact on the practice of law. The committee explained that his testimony was particularly impactful on their decision-making process:
After considering all of the evidence and testimony from the hearing, the Committee reached a conclusion similar to that of the D.C. court from the case discussed last week. The Committee determined that the petitioning attorney could practice law under the circumstances described given that he had no intention of setting up a permanent practice in Florida:
Both of these opinions are evidence of a greater trend: the pandemic has ushered in a new normal for the legal profession. Remote working, and the cloud-based technology needed to enable it, are here to stay. Practicing law from any location is becoming an accepted practice, and increasingly commonplace.
So if you’re still on the fence regarding the use of cloud computing software in your law firm, what are you waiting for? The tides have turned, and there’s no better time than now to make the transition to working remotely using cloud-based technology.