Foreign Attorney — Distribution of Self-Executing Will Package.

In response to your letter of August 31, 1987, requesting an informal, advisory opinion as to whether it would be unauthorized practice of law in Virginia for members of a District of Columbia law firm to offer legal services to residents of Virginia by distributing a simple, self-executing will package, you should be advised that the sale of a “living will” form, in itself, is not the unauthorized practice of law.  UPL Opinion No. 56 specifically addresses this issue.

UPL Opinion No. 56 goes further to say that the Committee “does not condone the rendition of counsel or advice to individuals who would buy the form,” and this Committee cautions that an attorney who is not a member of the Virginia State Bar should refrain from giving counsel or advice to residents of Virginia concerning the law of decedents of estates in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Committee Opinion
January 27, 1988