Back to the future along the Hudson: Is the New York state of mind confused about MDPS?

The ability of lawyers to participate in multidisciplinary practices is a complicated issue, which gives rise to many structural and ethical problems. In the article below, Dean Powell critiques the New York State Bar Association's attempt to resolve these problems. Through a comparison of the ABA's Commission on Multidisciplinary Practice Report with the NYSBA's Special Committee on the Law Governing Firm Structure and Operation, Dean Powell argues that the NYSBA attempt is without ingenuity and fails to give a fresh approach to the decade-old debate on multidisciplinary practice. Dean Powell then concludes that the ABA's approach is the only scheme that comprehensively regulates all lawyers who are licensed to Practice, regardless of the context or content of their work.