Virginia Bar Investigators Dust Off Their Cloaks and Daggers

The Virginia State Bar's standing committee on unauthorized practice of law stopped conducting undercover investigations years ago out of concern that the practice might violate ethical constraints against deceit and misrepresentation. Now the Bar's legal ethics committee has issued a formal opinion clearing the way for investigators once again to engage in sting operations when there is no other feasible way to investigate a complaint that a non-lawyer is practicing law.