What Can a Paralegal Not Do? Legal Advice and UPL Limits

No. The clearest written statement of the boundary is NALA's Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility — first adopted in May 1975 and organized into 10 canons.

Canon 1 bars a paralegal from the unauthorized practice of law and from establishing attorney-client relationships, setting fees, giving legal opinions or advice, or representing a client before a court or agency unless authorized.

What paralegals do all day sits on the other side of that line, and the ABA's Model Rules say so explicitly.

Comment [2] to Model Rule 5.5 says that the rule does not prohibit a lawyer from employing the services of paraprofessionals and delegating functions to them, so long as the lawyer supervises the delegated work and retains responsibility for it.

NALA's Canon 3 says the same from the paralegal's side: any task properly delegated and supervised by an attorney, with the attorney staying responsible to the client, keeping a direct relationship with the client and taking professional responsibility for the work product.

Where this article's state examples come from, written rules draw the advice line the same way.

California's Business and Professions Code §6450 works paralegals into a supervision structure — under the direction and supervision of an active State Bar member — and bars them from giving legal advice and from representing clients in court.

And where a state certifies document preparers, the information/advice distinction is written out: Arizona says legal document preparers may provide general legal information but may not give legal advice.

So the short answer has a structure behind it: the advice, the fee, the client relationship and the courtroom seat are the acts Canon 1 bars a paralegal from.

The work the lawyer delegates, under supervision, is the paralegal job.

Unauthorized practice of law (UPL) is the line's name, and the first thing to know is that no single national definition exists: comment [2] to Model Rule 5.5 says the definition of the practice of law varies by jurisdiction.

The ABA's Model Rules are a model — Rule 5.5 binds lawyers, not paralegals directly — while the unauthorized-practice rules that reach nonlawyers are each state's own law.

What lands on the wrong side of the line, in the sources this article draws on, are the acts at the core of the lawyer's role:

• Giving legal opinions or legal advice — barred by NALA's Canon 1 and by California's §6450(c).
• Establishing an attorney-client relationship — Canon 1.
• Setting fees — Canon 1.
• Representing a client before a court or agency — Canon 1 bars this unless the paralegal is separately authorized, and California's §6450(c) bars representing clients in court.
• Preparing legal documents outside a lawyer's supervision — in Arizona, anyone preparing legal documents without the supervision of an Arizona attorney must be certified as a legal document preparer under Arizona Supreme Court Rule 31 and ACJA §7-208; in California, providing self-help document services for pay is the registered legal document assistant's role, a different job from a paralegal.

The state document-preparer rules sharpen the information/advice boundary better than any abstract definition.

Arizona's rule says legal document preparers "may provide general legal information but may not give legal advice."

California's LDA statute goes further: a legal document assistant may not provide any advice, explanation, opinion or recommendation to a consumer about possible legal rights, remedies, defenses, options, selection of forms or strategies.

Consolidated from NALA's Canon 1 and the state examples above, the do-not list for a paralegal reads:

• Give legal opinions or legal advice.
• Establish an attorney-client relationship.
• Set fees.
• Represent a client before a court or agency — Canon 1 bars this unless the paralegal is separately authorized, and California's §6450(c) bars representing clients in court.
• Contribute to UPL — Canon 1's opening bar: a paralegal must not "engage in, encourage, or contribute to any act which could constitute the unauthorized practice of law."
• Work directly for the public in California. §6450 says a paralegal works under the direction and supervision of an active California State Bar member and may not contract with or be employed by a natural person other than an attorney to perform paralegal services.

The counterweight matters just as much: NALA's Canon 3 lets a paralegal perform any task properly delegated and supervised by an attorney, provided the attorney stays responsible to the client, keeps a direct relationship with the client and takes professional responsibility for the work product.

Comment [2] to Model Rule 5.5 confirms the delegation structure from the lawyer's side.

That is why the allowed side is a working job — investigating case facts, researching law, drafting, filings, trial support — and why all of it runs under a lawyer's supervision.

The full duty list is in the paralegal duties breakdown, and the role itself is mapped in the paralegal career guide.

No — with a narrow carve-out, and the carve-out is not paralegal work.

NALA's Canon 1 bars representing a client before a court or agency unless authorized, and California's §6450(c) bars representing clients in court.

What paralegals do around court is support the lawyer's representation: BLS lists helping at trial with exhibits and notes and filing documents with courts and agencies among the occupation's typical duties.

Supporting the lawyer's representation is the job; being the client's representative is not.

Two authorized roles do exist, and both are separate callings rather than extensions of the paralegal job:

• State legal paraprofessionals. Arizona's licensed Legal Paraprofessionals can appear in court within their licensed practice areas, Colorado's Licensed Legal Paraprofessionals may appear in court for clients, and Minnesota's legal paraprofessionals may, in some case types, appear in court while working under a supervising Minnesota lawyer. These are separate state programs, not an extension of ordinary paralegal work — they are covered in the next section.
• DOJ-accredited representatives. Under 8 CFR 1292.1, a DOJ (EOIR) accredited representative is authorized to represent immigration clients on behalf of a recognized organization; a partially accredited representative may practice only before DHS, while a fully accredited representative may also practice before the Immigration Courts and the BIA after registering. Only recognized organizations may request accreditation of individuals, and recognition is limited to non-profit religious, charitable, social service or similar organizations that serve mainly low-income and indigent clients — a role for staff at those organizations, not something a paralegal at a for-profit law firm can take up.

States that authorize nonlawyers to do limited legal work are the boundary's formal exceptions.

In the state rules this article checked, Arizona licenses Legal Paraprofessionals, who can give legal advice, sign and file documents, appear in court and negotiate within their licensed practice areas.

Utah licenses Licensed Paralegal Practitioners, who may give legal help only in the practice areas they are licensed for, and Oregon's Licensed Paralegals may advise clients and represent them in settlement in family law and landlord-tenant matters.

Colorado licenses Licensed Legal Paraprofessionals, a family-law limited license, and they may appear in court for clients.

Two programs work differently.

Minnesota's Legal Paraprofessional Program became a permanent statewide program on January 1, 2025, but there is no separate license: approved participants are listed on a court roster and work under a supervising Minnesota lawyer.

Washington's Supreme Court decided on June 4, 2020 to sunset its LLLT program; no new LLLTs are being licensed, though existing LLLTs can still practice in family law.

These programs sit in a different category from paralegal credentials.

NFPA says no single authority oversees the paralegal profession in the U.S. and that, as of its writing, no state has paralegal licensure — and it lists state legal paraprofessional programs separately, a list that names Arizona, Minnesota, Oregon and Utah but not Colorado.

The practical distinction: a paralegal can call themselves licensed only in a state with a formal paraprofessional license; voluntary certifications — NALA's CP, NFPA's RP and CRP, NALS's PP, AAPI's AACP — are not licenses.

These are examples from the state rules we checked, not a complete national list, and program status is a state-by-state matter.

If you are weighing one of these programs, confirm the program's current scope and status with the state body that administers it.

State-by-state paralegal rules are also collected in our state paralegal rules guide.

The exposure runs on both sides of the relationship.

For the paralegal, the rules that reach nonlawyers directly are state law — each state's own unauthorized-practice law.

For the lawyer, the professional-conduct rules apply: Model Rule 5.5(a) says a lawyer shall not practice law in a jurisdiction in violation of that jurisdiction's regulation of the legal profession, or assist another in doing so.

A paralegal who crosses the line can therefore create exposure for the supervising lawyer under the assist clause.

The structure also explains what changes when the line is crossed.

Delegated work is lawful work while the lawyer supervises and retains responsibility for it.

Legal advice given by a paralegal on their own authority is not delegated, supervised work — it is the conduct the state's UPL law and the lawyer's conduct rules address.

The ABA's model rule on a lawyer's responsibilities regarding nonlawyer assistance is Rule 5.3, the provision comment [2] cross-references.

What the supervision duty means for a firm — the employer side of this boundary — is covered in our guide to supervising paralegals.

One honest gap: the sources this article draws on record where the line sits, not a national penalty schedule.

What follows a crossing is a matter of each state's own law and rules — check with the state bar where you work if you need the specifics.

Career information, not legal advice. Where the UPL line sits is set state by state — confirm the current rules with the state bar or regulator named for your state before you rely on them.