Gone are the days that confined legal careers to state borders. With technological advancements and regulatory changes, it’s easier to embrace the role of a multi-state lawyer and offer legal solutions that transcend geographical boundaries.
Whether your motivation lies in professional growth, freedom in your practice or diverse client representation, this article is a comprehensive guide to becoming a multi-state lawyer.
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From its benefits and challenges to leveraging legal tools that make the journey easier, we’ll cover everything you need to know about having a successful career as a multi-state lawyer.
Let’s begin!
Article Roadmap
- What Are Multi-State Lawyers?
- Primary Benefits
- Key Challenges
- How To Become a Multi-State Lawyer
- Next Steps
What Are Multi-State Lawyers?
Multi-state lawyers or multijurisdictional lawyers are legal professionals who obtain different State Bar licenses to practice law in multiple states within a country. They can provide legal services and represent clients in courts located in states where they hold licenses.
As a lawyer, if you travel to or from a particular state regularly, you may want to explore this career option. Also, larger law firms aiming to extend their reach to various regions and support remote work could find this path appealing. Their services can benefit clients with legal matters that cross state borders or involve legal issues in different jurisdictions.
Now, you might wonder, can lawyers practice law anywhere in the country?
No, most states have their own bar association and require a state bar license for practicing law in their jurisdiction. You must meet specific qualifications and pass the bar examination for each state where you want to represent clients and become a multi-state lawyer.
Even a few legal cases that are fundamentally federal in nature and scope, like bankruptcy, intellectual property and immigration, require you to have specific state licenses.
However, the answer isn’t so simple. There are a few exceptions that enable lawyers from one state to practice in another state, like:
- Pro hac vice admission
- Multijurisdictional practice
- Federal practice
- Transactional work
- International cases
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Primary Benefits
Expand Your Client Base
Having multiple state licenses lets you represent clients from various jurisdictions, expanding your potential client base. For instance, if you highly specialize in a niche practice area lacking the client base in your current market, it can be practical and economically advantageous to take cases from other states.
It’s especially beneficial if you practice near a border and many of your clients live in one state and frequently travel to work in the other. They might have legal problems in one or both states and not want to have to hire multiple lawyers. Also, if you live in a smaller region, you might miss out on potential clients living near your licensed area.
Becoming a multi-state lawyer opens the door to more opportunities and, ultimately, helps you grow your practice.
Enhance Geographical Flexibility
A legal career involves many geographical restrictions, so working in a single jurisdiction is easier. But life is unpredictable — some important events might spring up suddenly, requiring you to relocate to a different state.
Becoming a multi-state lawyer can be a strategic choice, given that states only allow you to sit for the bar exam biannually. Moreover, navigating through multiple fitness, character and licensure prerequisites in different regions can add another layer of complexity to the process, delaying it by months or even years before being able to accept clients.
Multi-state lawyers can relocate without worrying about losing even a second of work, thereby adding a layer of security to their business.
Unlock Collaboration Potential
With multiple state licenses, you can seamlessly partner with attorneys from different regions, leading to networking and professional growth. This collaboration helps leverage varied legal perspectives, expertise and insights related to specialized local knowledge, laws and regulations. Various document management, case management and online storage tools can be your allies in facilitating streamlined access to documents for working and collaborating from anywhere.
Also, the dynamic exchange of ideas and approaches from several legal markets enriches collaborative discussions and problem-solving, ensuring more effective and comprehensive representation for clients.
Enable Remote Work
Remote work is common after the COVID-19 pandemic for lawyers and nearly every other profession. However, some states don’t allow telecomputing, so you must not violate state-specific rules prohibiting the unauthorized practice of law. Make sure you do your due diligence before remotely accepting clients in any area to avoid legal consequences.
While enjoying a flexible work environment, it becomes your ethical responsibility to maintain client confidentiality and adhere to each jurisdiction’s professional standards and regulations.
Today, the most successful law firms use the latest technology and tools to safely serve their clients remotely. Legal practice management software, eDiscovery tools, legal billing, bankruptcy software and more can help you thrive in the competitive market and provide exceptional legal services to your clients.
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Key Challenges
Time and Financial Constraints
Obtaining and maintaining licenses and taking bar exams is an expensive affair. You must also complete Continuous Legal Education hours each year to keep your license, which can incur hundreds of dollars and a lot of time spent in CLE seminars.
Marketing Complexity
Promoting your services across various states can be difficult due to varying client requirements, local laws and market competition. To attract clients, you need to ensure that they can find your law firm in local searches. It requires you to develop an SEO plan to keep your site rankings high.
However, it can be challenging to target each region you practice in. You can hire a legal marketing agency or use solutions like Clio, Smokeball and more to optimize your SEO strategy.
Complex Litigation
To handle multi-state cases, you must understand law conflicts, procedural differences and jurisdictional issues. On top of that, practicing law in multiple states can differ for transactional lawyers and litigators.
Transactional lawyers don’t have to spend much time in courtrooms, so it’s relatively straightforward as long as they’ve passed state bar exams. But litigators need to know courtroom procedures that vary from state to state.
Legal Diversity
Staying up to date with different laws and regulations in each state is one of the biggest challenges multi-state lawyers face. It requires a lot of effort and research to learn a new set of rulings to use in cases and organize your case files.
How To Become a Multi-State Lawyer
Research on Reciprocity
Some states offer reciprocity to facilitate mobility for multi-state lawyers. This contribution means they allow licensed lawyers in a reciprocal state to practice in their jurisdiction without taking the bar exam. However, they require some amount of relevant experience, usually five years or more. Make sure you check reciprocity regulations in the state you want to practice in.
Consider the Uniform Bar Exam
If a particular state doesn’t offer reciprocity or you aren’t eligible, your next step is to take the uniform bar exam (UBE). This standardized exam gives you licensure in thirty-six states.
It’s important to note that every state has its own UBE score, validity and some additional requirements, so we recommend checking them properly before planning to work in any region.
Take Bar Exams in Multiple States
If none of the above two options work out, you can take another bar exam. Though not popular, this is a more practical route for a multi-state lawyer. It’s much easier to take the second exam when you have experienced the first one and know what to expect.
However, this may not be a feasible choice for everyone due to the significant cost and challenges involved, so many lawyers look for jurisdictions offering reciprocity or take the UBE.
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Next Steps
The added flexibility and endless opportunities to expand your legal practice by becoming a multi-state lawyer make it a lucrative career option. Once you’ve decided to be a lawyer in multiple states, start by exploring reciprocity requirements in each jurisdiction. Decide whether to take the UBE or new bar exams. After that, prepare your applications, study as needed, network with local attorneys and stay updated with each state’s rules once you’re in.
As a multi-state lawyer, integrating the right software into your workflow can be a game-changer. It can help you manage cases, handle documents and communicate with clients. But how do you find the solution that meets your needs with so many options available? Don’t worry, we’re here to help you find the perfect fit.
Check out our free comparison report that lets you analyze the leading solutions in the market based on features, pricing and other custom criteria.
How do you think practicing law in multiple states is reshaping the way legal professionals work? How can it impact the dynamics of client-attorney relationships? Let us know in the comments below.