Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

It is essential for lawyers who represent clients in different states where they are not admitted to practice law to keep up with developments in multijurisdictional practice. Bruce Meyerson reports on the latest happenings in the field.

As more and more national and international businesses expand their use of mediation and arbitration, attorneys representing these entities find themselves traveling from state to state representing their client in ADR proceedings.

State regulation of the practice of law has not kept up with this rapidly changing expansion in the use of ADR proceedings by companies doing business throughout the United States. Most states have been slow to make their own legal ethics rules more flexible in permitting out-of-state attorneys to appear intermittently on behalf of clients in mediation and arbitration without becoming licensed in those jurisdictions.1 To remedy this situation, the American Bar Association has made important additions to its Model Rules of Professional Conduct (ABA Model Rules) for states to consider concerning the multijurisdictional practice of law in ADR proceedings. This article will discuss this proposal and those states that have responded to the issue.