Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

New opportunities for registered in-house counsel

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//August 24, 2016//

New opportunities for registered in-house counsel

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//August 24, 2016//

Listen to this article

Rule change to let lawyers licensed in other states perform more pro bono work

By Doug Hagerman and Atheneé Lucas

Doug Hagerman, general counsel for Rockwell Automation
Doug Hagerman, general counsel for Rockwell Automation

A rule change recently approved by the Wisconsin Supreme Court will soon mean that corporate counsel who practice in Wisconsin even though they are not licensed in-state will be on an equal footing with their licensed counterparts when it comes to providing pro bono legal services.

Wisconsin has roughly 350 lawyers registered as in-house counsel, according to the Board of Bar Examiners, the agency charged with overseeing both admissions to the State Bar and continuing legal education. Even though these lawyers have been admitted to other states’ bars, their lack of a Wisconsin license means they are subject to certain restrictions here.

They are, for one, essentially prohibited from practicing law for clients other than their employers and may not represent clients in court unless they obtain pro hac vice status. They are also prevented from performing pro bono work unless it’s for “qualified clients of a legal-service program.”

Those limits will go away come Jan. 1. Because of a rule change the Supreme Court approved in April, registered in-house lawyers will start the new New Year with no more barriers to doing pro bono work than their licensed colleagues now must contend with.

For Mark Cameli, a lawyer who runs Reinhart Boerner Van Dueren’s pro bono committee, the new leeway will lead to a far more efficient delivery of pro bono services. Perhaps most notably, it will get rid of hurdles that now sometimes make it hard for these sorts of lawyers to team up with their employers for pro bono work.

“It’s an effective way to leverage resources,” Cameli said. “And it’s been my experience that outside counsel enjoy working with their in-house counsel clients. This should be a nice way for them to do things together.”

Doug Hagerman, general counsel at Rockwell Automation, said the change will bring certain legal services within the reach of those who are in the greatest need. Oftentimes, the clients who would benefit most from representation in civil cases are the very same ones who can least afford it.

“People have a need for legal services in this state,” Hagerman said. “It seemed like a shame not to allow these really experienced, competent lawyers to help meet that need.”

Cameli and Hagerman were among a group of attorneys that came out earlier this year in support of the Supreme Court’s adoption of the new rule. Among other things, the rule change will delete the current prohibition that prevents in-house registered lawyers from providing pro bono legal services to anyone other than  qualified clients of a legal-service program.

That last part of the rule made little sense to Atheneé Lucas and others at the Wisconsin Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, which originally approached the State Bar of Wisconsin with the rule-change proposal.

Atheneé Lucas, former president of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Wisconsin chapter and corporate counsel for Fiserv Inc.
Atheneé Lucas, former president of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Wisconsin chapter and corporate counsel for Fiserv Inc.

The Association of Corporate Counsel – also known as the ACC – began looking into the matter in 2012, when Lucas was president of the organization’s Wisconsin Chapter. Around the same time, the ACC’s national arm was instructing its chapters to examine discrepancies between the state rules governing in-house attorneys and those for their registered counterparts.

Not only did they find that the language not clear. They also discovered that the basic reasons for why the rule was the way it was were shrouded in obscurity.

“In doing our research, no one could pinpoint when this caveat to this rule came about,” Lucas said. “As far as we know, it’s been there for a while. There’s no legislative history. It’s kind of like a black hole. No one could figure out where it came from and why.”

The proposal did meet with opposition, including some from the Board of Bar Examiners. One argument invoked against the change made much of possible risks for clients.

Because registered in-house lawyers are without Wisconsin licenses, no one in Wisconsin could be certain what standards these lawyers had to meet when they were licensed to practice elsewhere – or at least so the line of reasoning went. Opponents of the rule change argued that registered in-house lawyers’ pro bono work should continue to be limited lest clients be unnecessarily exposed to harm.

But he justices apparently saw things a different way, much to the delight of Lucas and others.

“Our point was, they’re still lawyers held to the standard of their home state,” Lucas said. “It’s not fair to say the registered lawyers are not held to any standard because we all are as lawyers.”

One of the proposal’s biggest supporters from the start was Hagerman. He saw the recent rule change as being particularly important because employers like his tend both to move attorneys from state to state and to have attorneys on staff who, because of the current rule, often find it difficult to practice law pro bono.

“It’s a great win-win,” Hagerman said. “It’s a win for people that need the help and a great professional activity for the lawyers who can do it. There’s a huge unmet need and all these great lawyers who are able to help meet that need.”

Also coming in 2017

Along with the new rule broadening the type of work registered in-house lawyers can perform, the Wisconsin Supreme Court approved a separate change that will let licensed attorneys get continuing-legal-education credit for providing pro bono legal services.

Starting Jan. 1, 2017, attorneys licensed in Wisconsin can earn one credit for every five hours of pro bono work they perform. The biggest limit here is that they can receive no more than six credits in every two-year reporting period.

Also, lawyers who are seeking readmission, reinstatement or reactivation are barred from obtaining continuing-legal-education credit for providing pro bono services.

Polls

Should Steven Avery be granted a new evidentiary hearing?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Legal News

See All Legal News

WLJ People

Sea all WLJ People

Opinion Digests