Professional Responsibility and Privilege in the Cross-Border Practice of Law

This Article captures my presentation and the discussion at the May 2024 Dubrovnik Program on Cross-Border Dispute Resolution co-sponsored by the Center for International Legal Education (CILE) at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and the Law Faculties at the University of Verona and the University of Zagreb. I review U.S. law on professional responsibility and cross-border practice, with a focus on disciplinary decisions and cases dealing with the unauthorized practice of law. I follow that discussion with consideration of the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrines in order to highlight how challenges to the admissibility of evidence in dispute resolution proceedings both demonstrate the differences in legal system approaches to the lawyer-client relationship and indicate the need for careful communication at all stages of that relationship when it crosses borders. I conclude that the current system of lawyer regulation does not meet the needs of the contemporary world. The result is a need for vigilance on the part of any lawyer engaged in the cross-border practice of law.