Former Ohio State Law Student Found Guilty Of Practicing Without License

A former law school student as Ohio State University Moritz College of Law has been hit with an order barring her from doing legal work in the state and imposing a $1000 fine. Paige N. Casey got off fairly lightly since many states allow for much more severe penalties, including jail time.

Casey was a law student at Ohio State until October 2010. The opinion below says that the next year, Casey told a friend with a traffic ticket that she could represent him and told both a prosecutor and judge that she was a lawyer. She said that she was a certified legal intern allowed to do such practice. She also filed papers with “J.D.” after her name. The Supreme Court concluded that “[t]he evidence also demonstrates that Casey held herself out as a licensed attorney to Fishman and that she represented to … employees of the Euclid Municipal Court that she had the authority to practice law as a certified legal intern.”

She is fortunate given the false statements made to the court and prosecutor that the penalty was not heavier.

Here is the opinion: 2013-ohio-5284