 The practice of law involves giving legal advice to clients, drafting legal documents for clients, and representing clients in legal negotiations and court proceedings such as lawsuits. This is applied to the professional services of a lawyer or Attorney at Law, barrister, solicitor or civil law notary. Very often the practice of law and many other professions where clients are represented by agents is overlapped. These professions include real estate, banking, accounting, and insurance. Besides, a growing number of legal document assistants (LDAs) are offering services which have traditionally been offered only by lawyers and their employee paralegals.
The practice of law in the United States is conditioned upon admission to the bar of a particular state or other territorial jurisdiction. And the American Bar Association and the American Law Institute are among the organizations that are concerned with the interests of lawyers as a profession and the promulgation of uniform standards of professionalism and ethics, but regulation of the practice of law is left to the individual states.
By statute, regulation, or court rules, every state forbids the "unauthorized practice of law." As an example, we can say about Texas law that generally prohibits a person who is not an attorney from representing a client in a personal injury or property damage matter, and punishes a violation as a misdemeanor. And some states also criminalize the separate behavior of falsely claiming to be lawyer.
Almost certainly the most common lawbreakers are accountants, paralegals, notaries public, and people who formerly worked for an attorney, as most unauthorized practice of law may be unintended. For example, many accountants who represent small businesses will "fill out some forms" to create a corporation. And very often they draft legal documents, but this requires a law license. A notary public who reads instructions, asks questions, and tells a person which forms to use and how to fill them out may be giving legal advice. It is important to get legal advice and draft legal documents when buying a legal form in a store and assisting a friend fill it out.
Unauthorized practice of law is considered to be a criminal offense in most states. But common practice is simply to explain to the person that the questioned activities constituted unauthorized practice of law and get an agreement that the person will desist.
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