A recent Illinois Appellate Court ruling "strongly reaffirms the principle that corporations must be represented by lawyers at administrative hearings," says ISBA General Counsel Charles J. Northrup. In Stone Street Partners, LLC v. The City of Chicago Department of Administrative Hearings, 2014 IL App (1st) 123654, the court found that the hearings "involve the admission of evidence and examination and cross-examination of sworn witnesses -- all of which clearly constitute the practice of law," in the words of majority-opinion author Justice Mathias Delort.

Northrup noted the broad sweep of the ruling. "The opinion is significant not only because of its discussion of what constitutes the practice of law, but also because (1) it narrowly interprets the 2012 Illinois Supreme Court decision in Downtown Disposal (finding in a 4-3 decision that an administrative review complaint filed by a nonlawyer was not a complete nullity); and (2) calls into question the validity of any statute or rule that grants a nonlawyer the authority to represent a corporation in an administrative hearing as a usurpation of the supreme court’s authority to administer and regulate the practice of law."

For summaries of and links to this and other cases and more UPL news, visit the online home of the ISBA Task Force on Unauthorized Practice of Law.