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The first article I read was about Kimberly Kitchen.Kitchen worked as an estate lawyer at a firm in Huntingdon County, where she soon made partner.After an investigation, it was discovered that Kitchen forged her documents stating that she went law school and passed the bar exam, when in fact she never attended or graduated from a law school.Kitchen had been practicing law for nearly ten years.I thought this case was a clear violation of UPL laws.Kitchen was practicing the law in every aspect and she was not a licensed attorney the entire time.Quite honestly, it is scary that she got away with it for as long as she did.Lacking intent to defraud and providing good services are not valid excuses.If you were not planning to commit fraud, then why lie in the first place?

The second article involves Neil Lawrence.He was found guilty of not only UPL violations but also theft and writing bad checks.As far as UPL is concerned, he was practicing the law while he was suspended. The excuses he gave for validating his actions and behavior are not valid enough and his actions clearly show he engaged in unauthorized practice of law.

The third article involved Samuel and Carl Lovett.These brothers maintained a law office for 18 years even though one of them failed the bar 8 times and the other never even took the bar exam.The fact that they opened a firm without passing the bar and without being licensed seems like a deliberate deceit to clients, which initiates a UPL violation.Even though they both passed the exam, after multiple attempts later on, they still were operating out of the firm while they were not licensed.This is shocking to me that people behave like this.

The last article involves Dennis McGrath.McGrath worked for a firm in New York for nearly a decade but he was actually not licensed in NY.He should not have been practicing in NY if he was not licensed to do so. Clear UPL violation of practicing law without a license.My whole take away from these articles is just pure and utter shock.It amazes me that people think it is okay to pretend to be an attorney and pretend to be licensed.Attorneys deal with so much sensitive information and the attorney's work can be detrimental to clients if done incorrectly.There needs to be a sense of trust with the attorney and client relationship.I think there needs to be some type of UPL continuing ed for attorneys and non lawyers since the defintion is so vague but violations seem to occur often.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS POST? COMMENT YOUR THOUGHTS AS IF YOU WERE REPLYING TO A CLASSMATE. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?