The Unauthorized Practice of Law and Remote Work: Ethics, Regulation, and Innovation in 2025

Amy E. Richardson | HWG LLP

Amy E. Richardson is a Partner and Managing Partner of HWG LLP’s Raleigh office, where she chairs the firm’s Legal Ethics and Malpractice group. Her practice spans legal ethics and professional responsibility, white collar criminal defense, and complex civil litigation — with a particular focus on representing lawyers and law firms in disciplinary investigations and prosecutions, malpractice matters, partner admissions and departures, and law firm dissolutions, including matters before the USPTO’s Office of Enrollment and Discipline and the Office of Professional Responsibility. She also represents companies and individuals before federal and state regulatory agencies and Offices of Inspector General, and brings extensive white collar criminal defense experience including grand jury preparation and trial work. Amy teaches legal ethics and professional responsibility at Duke University School of Law and previously taught at Georgetown University Law Center. She is Chambers USA-ranked for white collar crime and government investigations in North Carolina, a North Carolina Super Lawyers Top 100 and Top 50 Women honoree, and a member of Business North Carolina’s Legal Elite. She holds a J.D., cum laude, from Duke University School of Law (2002) and a B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of North Carolina.

• Education & Credentials

Amy holds a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, from the University of North Carolina and a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Duke University School of Law (2002). Following law school, she clerked for the Honorable N. Carlton Tilley of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. She teaches legal ethics and professional responsibility at Duke University School of Law — the same institution from which she graduated cum laude — and has also taught at Georgetown University Law Center. She serves on the Law360 Editorial Advisory Board on Legal Ethics (2025) and is a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims Committee on Admission and Practice.

• Recognition & Leadership

Amy has received Chambers USA’s top ranking for white collar crime and government investigations lawyers in North Carolina, with clients describing her as having ‘great judgment,’ being ‘judicious in terms of how to use the firm’s resources,’ and simply ‘one of the best lawyers I know.’ She was featured in the 2025 North Carolina Super Lawyers Top 100 and Top 50 Women lists, has been selected to Super Lawyers annually from 2021 through 2025, and has been elected to Business North Carolina’s Legal Elite from 2020 through 2025. She was featured on Corporate Crime Reporter’s ‘150 Women in White Collar’ list in 2016. She co-founded the North Carolina Compliance Association and serves as Vice Chair of the Wake County Commission for Women, Ethics Chair of the NC Bar Association’s Litigation Council, Co-Chair of the FCBA Professional Responsibility Committee, and advisory member of the NC Bar Ethics Committee.

• Professional Involvement

Amy chairs the Legal Ethics and Malpractice group at HWG LLP and teaches at Duke University School of Law. She co-founded the North Carolina Compliance Association and serves on the Law360 Legal Ethics Editorial Advisory Board. She is Vice Chair of the Wake County Commission for Women, Ethics Chair of the NCBA Litigation Council, Co-Chair of the FCBA Professional Responsibility Committee, Vice Chair of the D.C. Bar Rules Committee, and a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims Committee on Admission and Practice. She publishes frequently on legal ethics topics in Law360, Bloomberg Law, For the Defense, and other publications, covering subjects ranging from law firm departures and conflicts of interest to outside counsel guidelines and government attorney ethics.

• Experience

Amy Richardson has built one of the most recognized legal ethics and professional responsibility practices in the Southeast — a practice that is simultaneously a teaching career at Duke Law and a thriving client advisory, disciplinary defense, and white collar representation practice. Her Chambers top ranking, her Duke and Georgetown teaching appointments, her co-founding of the North Carolina Compliance Association, and her Law360 Editorial Advisory Board membership collectively reflect a practitioner who is as invested in defining the standards of the profession as in defending practitioners who face them. Her clerkship under Judge Tilley of the Middle District of North Carolina, her extensive white collar defense record, and her counsel to law firms navigating some of their most sensitive internal and external challenges — partner transitions, disciplinary investigations, malpractice exposure — define a career of exceptional breadth, institutional trust, and professional leadership.

Jessica Bednarz | IAALS, Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System

Jessica Bednarz is the Director of Legal Services and the Profession at IAALS, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, where she leads the organization’s vision and strategy around innovation, regulation, reform, and evolution in the delivery of legal services and the legal profession. She joined IAALS in 2023 after eight years at The Chicago Bar Foundation, where her work spanned a wide range of access to justice issues — including oversight of the Justice Entrepreneurs Project (CBF’s legal incubator program), launching Legal Entrepreneurs for Justice in Colorado, staffing the Chicago Bar Association and Chicago Bar Foundation Task Force on the Sustainable Practice of Law and Innovation (focused on regulatory reform), and developing practitioner resources including the CBF Pricing and Limited Scope Representation Toolkits. Before the CBF, Jessica was in private practice as a family law attorney, both as a solo practitioner and as an associate at O’Connor Family Law, P.C. She also served as MCLE Coordinator for the Chicago Bar Association and as a consultant for the Colorado Bar Association. She holds a J.D. and family law certificate, cum laude, from DePaul University College of Law and a B.S. from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.

• Education & Credentials

Jessica holds a Bachelor of Science from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and a Juris Doctor with a family law certificate, cum laude, from DePaul University College of Law. Her cum laude distinction and family law certificate from DePaul reflect both academic excellence and an early, focused commitment to the practice area that launched her legal career. Her work at the Chicago Bar Foundation — including her stewardship of the Justice Entrepreneurs Project incubator and the CBF Pricing and Limited Scope Representation Toolkits — reflects practical legal education and practitioner development credentials that complement her formal academic training.

• Recognition & Leadership

Jessica’s recognition is grounded in her leadership of two of the most consequential legal services innovation initiatives of recent years: the Justice Entrepreneurs Project at the Chicago Bar Foundation, one of the country’s most successful legal incubator programs, and the CBF Task Force on the Sustainable Practice of Law and Innovation, which produced influential work on regulatory reform and access to justice in Illinois. Her appointment as Director of Legal Services and the Profession at IAALS — one of the most respected legal reform research organizations in the United States — reflects national recognition of her expertise and leadership in legal services innovation and regulatory reform. She currently serves on the Colorado Access to Justice Commission Delivery of Legal Services Committee, the ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services, and the Legal Services Corporation Emerging Leaders Council.

• Professional Involvement

Jessica serves on the Colorado Access to Justice Commission Delivery of Legal Services Committee, the ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services, and the Legal Services Corporation Emerging Leaders Council. At IAALS, she leads research, policy, and programmatic work at the cutting edge of legal services delivery and professional regulation, engaging with bar associations, courts, regulators, and practitioners nationwide on the most significant access to justice and regulatory innovation issues facing the profession. Her prior work at the Chicago Bar Foundation — including launching Legal Entrepreneurs for Justice in Colorado and developing practitioner-facing toolkits on pricing and limited scope representation — reflects a commitment to translating policy into practical tools for working attorneys.

• Experience

Jessica Bednarz has built a career at the intersection of legal practice, access to justice, and professional reform — a trajectory that has taken her from family law practice to legal incubator leadership to national policy work at IAALS. Her eight years at the Chicago Bar Foundation gave her firsthand experience running the programs, staffing the task forces, and building the practitioner resources that are at the heart of legal services reform work in Illinois and beyond. Her DePaul Law cum laude credential, her Kelley School business foundation, and her current role at IAALS — where she leads one of the country’s most respected research and reform agendas for the legal profession — reflect a practitioner and policy leader who brings both on-the-ground legal experience and strategic institutional vision to the challenge of making legal services more accessible, innovative, and sustainable.

SESION 1 – UPL in a remote practice environment | 2:00pm – 2:20pm

Examine how remote work arrangements intersect with unauthorized practice of law restrictions, identifying when attorneys risk violations by serving clients across jurisdictions from home offices, virtual setups, or relocated workspaces.

SESSION 2 – Relevant ABA and state opinions on remote work | 2:20pm – 2:40pm

Review ABA Formal Opinions 495 and 498 alongside key state ethics opinions, clarifying when attorneys may practice remotely from jurisdictions where they are not licensed without triggering disciplinary exposure.

SESSION 3 – Regulatory innovation and sandbox learnings | 2:40pm – 3:00pm

Explore regulatory sandbox programs launched across multiple states, including outcomes, participant data, and lessons emerging from alternative business structures designed to expand legal service delivery and consumer access.

Break | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

SESSION 4 – Multijurisdictional risks and policy trends | 3:10pm – 3:40pm

Analyze cross-border practice risks under ABA Model Rule 5.5, evaluate exceptions permitting temporary practice, and track policy trends reshaping how states regulate attorneys serving clients in multiple jurisdictions today.

SESSION 5 – Evidence from IAALS on consumer-oriented legal services | 3:40pm – 4:10pm

Review IAALS research findings on allied legal professionals, community justice workers, and consumer-focused service models, applying data-driven insights to enhance access to justice within evolving ethical frameworks.