Brief of Amici Curiae Law Professors Supporting Plaintiffs-Appellees in the Upsolve, Inc. v. James Case

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Author(s):
Publish Date:
January 11, 2023
Format:
Brief
Citation(s):
  • Nora Freeman Engstrom & David Freeman Engstrom, Brief of Amici Curiae Law Professors Supporting Plaintiffs-Appellees in the Upsolve, Inc. v. James Case, No. 22-1345 in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (January 11, 2023).
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Abstract

This brief is written by law professors who research and write about access to justice and the regulation of the legal profession. They share a common interest in improving access to legal assistance for low- and moderate-income people facing debt collection actions and are especially interested in the case discussed here because it presents an important question: whether laws prohibiting the unauthorized practice of law, as applied to community volunteers offering basic legal advice, infringe upon volunteers’ First Amendment rights.

This case challenges lawyers’ claim of monopoly over basic legal advice. The State has mounted a vigorous appeal, characterizing a carve-out for community volunteers as an existential threat to the State’s ability to regulate the practice of law at all. But nonlawyers can assist one another in understanding and using the law without harm to the public or to the State’s interests in professional licensing and regulation, as empirical evidence shows and as New York and other states—and the United States—have recognized in numerous contexts. The Court should affirm the injunction and invite further efforts to improve public access to basic legal assistance in specific contexts of widespread legal need.