A lawyer’s use of non-lawyer assistants and employees, including secretaries, investigators, interns, and paraprofessionals, is well recognized and explicitly approved. See, Cmt 1 to Texas Disciplinary Rule of Professional Conduct 5.03 and Cmt 3 to TDRPC 5.05.  We have previously written about a lawyer’s responsibilities for non-lawyers that assist in the provision of legal services for the client, including the responsibility to ensure that the non-lawyers’ conduct complies with the lawyer’s ethical duties. 

While these non-lawyers serve important roles in the law firm, there are things they are specifically prohibited from doing: 

Non-lawyer employees are prohibited from practicing law, and lawyers can be disciplined for assisting a non-lawyer in the performance of activity that constitutes the unauthorized practice of law. TDRPC 5.05(a)(2). According to the Texas Government Code, this…