Senator candidate Elizabeth Warren accused of practicing law in Massachusetts without proper license
The debate between Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren this week has been relegated to the background as Warren’s private legal representation of The Travelers Insurance Company in an asbestos-related case has been brought into question.
photo David Shankbone
Moreover, Warren’s licensure and status in Massachusetts has been brought into question.
William Jacobson has posted here that Warren is not licensed in Massachusetts, and never has been; that she is not currently licensed to practice law anywhere; that Warren repeatedly listed her Cambridge, Massachusetts office as her law office in court filings.
Jacobson details some of the legal work in recent years, and how Warren was paid for it. She was paid a fee by Travelers Insurance Company, to cite just one example, that was in the low six figures.
Warren indisputably is practicing law, and by her own repeated assertion, she is doing so in Massachusetts.
The Massachusetts Rules of Professional Responsibility treat this subject as the rules do in most states. Rule 5.5 addresses the unauthorized practice of law. Rule 5.5 (b) sets out the basic prohibition on practicing law in Massachusetts without a Massachusetts license (emphasis added):
(b) A lawyer who is not admitted to practice in this jurisdiction shall not:
(1) except as authorized by these Rules or other law, establish an office or other systematic and continuous presence in this jurisdiction for the practice of law; or
(2) hold out to the public or otherwise represent that the lawyer is admitted to practice law in this jurisdiction.
Legal Insurrection has summarized the Warren concerns here, detailing Warren was not admitted in Massachusetts, Warren listed only one other place of admission on her Texas record, New Jersey:
Warren was listed as “Of Counsel” on Travelers’ Supreme Court Brief, listing her Harvard Law School office as her office address:
Warren also used her Cambridge office address in other Supreme Court Briefs, such as Rousey v. Jacoway in 2004 where she represented AARP:
In 2003, Warren used her Cambridge address for another AARP Supreme Court Brief in Till v. SCS Credit Corp. (no public image available, but available in text form through Westlaw at 2003 WL 22070307) in which she appeared along with other counsel:
