united-states criminal-law new-york-state prison
Would a prisoner be allowed to practice law and represent other inmates in court?
<p>Would a prisoner be allowed to practice law and represent other inmates in court, and shown in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_Life_(TV_series)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">For Life (2020)</a>?</p>
<p>According to the story, when he got to prison, he went to work for the paralegal association, representing inmates in the internal cases, inside prison. That got him unlimited access to the library. From there, college and law degrees online. Then he took the <a href="/questions/tagged/vermont" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;vermont&#39;" rel="tag">vermont</a> bar, which is the only state where you can sit for the bar exam with a degree from a non-accredited law school. Then, he applied to have his license accepted reciprocally in <a href="/questions/tagged/new-york" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;new-york&#39;" rel="tag">new-york</a>. Some bigwig sponsored him for the bar.</p>

<p>Maybe.</p>
<p>There are two questions presented.</p>
<p>The first is whether someone who is in prison for a felony may be admitted to the practice of law. There is not a categorical prohibition on doing so. Instead, a character and fitness committee in each state to which an applicant seeks admission (even if it is a reciprocal admission) considers an applicant on a case by case basis.</p>
<p>Usually, people with a felony conviction that is being served or is recent are not admitted to the practice of law, but it is not a blanket prohibition, so that could happen, although it would be highly unusual.</p>
<p>The second question is whether someone admitted to the practice of law in good standing who is incarcerated in prison would be allowed to do so by prison officials.</p>
<p>The work the inmates are allowed to do is largely in the discretion of the prison warden at a particular institution. It isn't inconceivable that a prison warden could allow an inmate to do this subject to significant limitations on scope of practice, but again, it would be highly unusual.</p>
<p>Some factors that might encourage a prison warden to allow it would be that: (1) the state has to pay another lawyer to represent inmates in some kinds of cases if the fellow inmate does not at greater expense per hour to the state, (2) it might promote rehabilitation and garner good press, and (3) the prison warden might reasonably guess that an inmate represented by a fellow inmate is less likely to prevail on the merits than an inmate represented by another lawyer and might prefer that outcome.</p>
<p>The leading treatise on the subject of lawyering by inmates, with and without full or limited admission to the practice of law, is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Jailhouse_Lawyer%27s_Manual" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Jailhouse Lawyer's Manual</a>.</p>

<p><strong>No</strong></p>
<p>Prisoners in the US are virtually never permitted to have any job other than ones supplied by the prison.</p>
<p>It doesn't matter if you're qualified to be a lawyer. You can't just leave prison as needed to do a job (including law).</p>

<p>I'd imagine that this is unclear in theory, but in practice the answer will be no. How is the prisoner supposed to leave the prison when he won't get a Release on Temporary Licence to do so? By absconding or escaping? That would be unlawful and so the answer must be no.</p>

<h2>No</h2>
<p>In most places in the world, you have to be registered as a lawyer to represent others. Also, in most places conviction of a serious crime/felony means you can't be a registered lawyer.</p>
