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| Unlicensed Practice of Law |  There are criminal penalties for (1) misleadingly coming out to the public as an attorney, and (2) the unauthorized practice of law by a non-attorney in some of the states.
The practice of law is not permitted legally to engage in for any individual who obtains a J.D. degree but is not admitted to a state bar, in such a case he or she is not an attorney. The unauthorized practice of law is supposed to be committed by an "out-of-state" lawyer within a particular state. Sometimes some definite exceptions occur. Legal practice of law is considered to take place in those cases when the out-of-state lawyer is permitted for the short term to perform his functions within the state pro hac vice or when his practice is regarded as internal recommendations for corporations.
Besides, U.S. Constitution mandated federal jurisdiction to determine severely some particular fields of law, for example patent law. In this case, state courts and bar associations are not permitted to limit the practice of that area of law, and a patent lawyer is able openly consult clients as to patent affairs anywhere within the authority of the United States with impunity, ignoring state court or bar association norms. Moreover, previously, to November 15, 1938, persons could become enrolled as “patent attorneys” with the PTO without even passing a state bar examination or entering law school. That position was granted for patent lawyers enrolled previously to that day. This stands for a holdover to the established denotation of the word “attorney” as “agent” or “attorney-in-fact”. Actually there are still some alive patent lawyers who became enrolled as patent lawyers before that day, as far back as 1934. Nowadays, a non-attorney is allowed to take and pass the patent bar exam, but this person would be regarded only as a patent agent.
In some judicature, the determination of the practice of law is rather precise; individuals have been effectively sued for issuing do-it-yourself will forms and for presenting special education children in federal lawsuits as purposely permitted by federal law.
Ironically, some courts will permit a non-lawyer to sit as a judge, especially in subordinate courts or in hearings by governmental bodies, even if a non-lawyer could not practice before these similar courts. This expands to the U.S. Constitution itself, which does not state any obligation that a U.S. Supreme Court justice or other federal judge is an attorney, even though it turns out that no non-attorney has ever been assigned as a federal judge.
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