LegalZoom, the online legal documents preparation
service, is seeking a toehold in North Carolina by amending
the statutory definition of the practice of law in G.S. 84-2.1 over
the objections of the North Carolina Bar. The fight has spilled
over from the Business Court in the Legislature making two of our
three branches of government the battleground.
As we've already reported, the Senate Judiciary Committee
produced a PCS for HB 663 that eliminated all language
about farm commodity food safety and replaced it with a
change to the scope of the practice of law that would allow
LegalZoom and others to operate legally in NC. The word in the
halls of the legislature was the NC Bar was given a heads up
but not ample time to rally the troops to the cause. The bill
passed committee and was added to the Senate Calendar for July 1st,
and then for July 9th, and then it was sent to the Senate
"Parking Lot", or the Rules Committee. But this bill
didn't die in Rules; it's still
