OK … so that’s not exactly what the DC Bar said, but take a moment and think about what two recent DC ethics opinions are suggesting. The Bar opinions note that many e-discovery vendors providing document review services are either a) practicing law without a license (opinion 21-12), or b) splitting fees improperly with non-lawyers (opinion 362). The obvious way to comply with these opinions will be for these e-discovery vendors to be limited to a) lawyers, b) practicing at law firms.

Are e-discovery vendors practicing law? Probably

Will ethics rules and opinions stop them? Probably not.

And we continue to long for the good ole days …