Tuesday, September 18th, 2007...12:40 pm
Licensing of Out-of-State Lawyers and Alaska Arbitrations
Alaska doesn’t require local bar admission for lawyers who represent parties in arbitration, so long as the attorney doesn’t represent that he or she is licensed by the Alaska Bar Association. See Bar Rule 63 (defining the unauthorized practice of law); AS 08.08.230 (making unauthorized practice of law a misdemeanor).
California, on the other hand, provides that non-California-licensed attorneys may represent parties in non-CBA-mandated arbitration only if a) California-licensed counsel is counsel of record; and b) the arbitrator approves the appearance of the out-of-state attorney. The penalty for violation of this rule is Bar discipline and the client’s inability to obain a fee award (attributable to the non-resident attorney) against the adverse party. In CBA-mandated arbitrations, California imposes no restrictions on a party’s use of out-of-state counsel. See this article in the California Wage and Hour Law Weblog.
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