Internship

TRANSCRIPT PROJECT BASED INTERNSHIP OL – AN OVERVIEW

Hello Everyone: My name is Professor Moya Bansile. I will be your Professor for

Project Based Internship Online.

This course is an internship as any other internship. Of course, it differs from a

traditional internship in that you will actually be working on line as opposed to sitting in

an office behind a desk. I will be the intermediator between yourself and the client. This

course has an actual client, which is the New York City Paralegal Association (NYCPA,)

The New York City Paralegal Association is a very large paralegal association that serves

the paralegal community.

Paralegals are extensions of attorneys; they are people who help attorneys to do the job

that they do. Paralegals are distinguished from attorneys in that paralegals:

- Do not practice law

- They do not give legal advice

- They do not represent the client in Court or before any type of Judicial Entity

- They do not form the attorney/client relationship with the client - They do not set

fees

So, paralegals are very, very strategic employees, however, they are not allowed to

practice law. If a paralegal engages in any type of activities that are not are not

authorized pursuant to state, federal, or local statutes, then the paralegal is considered to

be practicing law without a license, which is known as the Unauthorized Practice of

Law.

Paralegals are not the only people that could potentially be in violation of this particular

law. There are ordinary people that decide that they want to engage in the practice of law

for one reason or the other. Some of these people are notaries who pretend to be

attorneys for the purpose of taking advantage of unsuspecting clients.

In particular, I am referring to a concept called “Notario,” which is notary republics from

certain Latin American countries, where in these countries these “notarios” are allowed to

practice law. But, in the United States, they are not. So often times, immigrants are taken

advantage of by “notarios,” who are pretending to attorneys, and that is the unauthorized

practice of law.

Other non-lawyers, perhaps legal secretaries or legal assistants could engage in the

unauthorized practice of law either accidently or knowingly, and that is also prohibited

by the statutes. Every state has a particular law on the unauthorized practice of law,

whether is a formally a statute, or it is a state policy or a policy of the Bar Association.

TRANSCRIPT PROJECT BASED INTERNSHIP OL – AN OVERVIEW

Attorneys, also, could be involved in the unauthorized practice of law. Before you can

determine whether someone has engaged in authorized practice of law, you must first

determine what is the practice of law.

The practice of law is specifically given to certain a set of individuals that:

- Has attended law school

- Has successfully completed a Juris Doctor degree

- Has taken the bar exam of both the state they intend to practice in and the multistate

bar

- Has passed those bar exams

- Has gone through a character committee, which screens their character and

background

- Has been sworn in by the state giving authority to practice law, and

- Has obtained a Law License

Anyone who has not followed that path and is practicing law, is actually practicing law without a

license, which is the unauthorized practice of law.

Some attorneys have gone through the process, but they were never conferred a license. So,

although they have a law degree, they may have gone through the character committee, still do

not have a license, and they are not allowed to practice law.

There are many people out there that have a law degree, but they are not authorized to practice

law. Other attorneys who were practicing under their license, may have lost their license, or may

have had their license suspended for a period of time.

If an attorney is practicing with a suspended license or with license that has been completely

vacated or revoked in the form of a disbarment, then that attorney is also practicing law without

a

license, and engaged in the unauthorized practice of law.

In addition, some attorneys may be licensed in a particular state and authorized to practice there,

but they are not licensed in another state and not allowed to practice there. Some attorneys have

multiple licenses. Like myself, I am a licensed attorney in the states of New York and New

Jersey, and I have been licensed since the early 90’s so I have been practicing under both my

New York and my New Jersey licenses for almost 20 years. However, I am not allowed to

practice in the state of Connecticut, or Pennsylvania or any other state, for that matter, where I

am not licensed.

TRANSCRIPT PROJECT BASED INTERNSHIP OL – AN OVERVIEW

There are very limited exceptions to this rule, which allows an attorney to practice in a state

where they have not been conferred a license. This is called the pro hac vice, (they are

pronounced pro hack Vishay) they are three words. Pro hac vice is a principle that allows an

attorney, from a state where he or she has been conferred a license, to come into a foreign state

to practice for a specific purpose with permission of that state’s Bar.

In order to obtain this permission, pro hac vice, the attorney seeking to practice pro hac vice for

that case only, needs to apply to the state and get permission according to whatever that state’s

rules are in order to be able to practice for that particular case only.

So that’s a quick breakdown of the unauthorized practice of law. For people that are in the legal

community, anyone who is in violation of this will be considered to have done something

unethical, so therefore the Rules of Professional Ethics governs this particular area and also

many other areas of law.

But for those of you that are familiar with the Rules of Professional Ethics, every state has

adopted a particular set of rules, by which they expect their licensed attorneys to practice under.

Although paralegals are not licensed to practice law, they also are held to Rules of Professional

Ethics. The Rules of Professional Ethics do not just talk about the unauthorized practice of law,

it talks about many other areas of law where attorneys are expected to perform at a certain level

of competency. For example, there should be no conflicts of interest, there should be no

breaches of confidentiality, there should be no solicitation, there should be no unauthorized

practice of law, fees should not be excessive, and these are just some of the rules.

This is not a full blown lecture, this is just an introduction to the topic. But, I will give you a

little more as we go along. I hope you have a wonderful semester, and I look forward to working

with you and I think this will be a very exciting project for you.

Thank You.

TRANSCRIPT PROJECT BASED INTERNSHIP OL – AN OVERVIEW

THIS CONCLUDES THE OVERVIEW