The California Supreme Court held that nonprofit law firms can practice law without registering with the State Bar like for-profit firms must, but told the Bar to conduct a study to determine whether such groups imperil clients and, if so, whether registration could solve the problem. The State Bar’s 44-page report of August 20, 2007 affirms our argument to the Supreme Court and demonstrates it effectively agrees with us that nonprofits need to be regulated by the State Bar. Indeed, most tenants probably do not realize that the Tenderloin Housing Clinic – San Francisco’s premier low-income tenant law firm – is actually also a landlord and evicts more tenants in San Francisco than any other landlord, and it can engage in this conflict of interest without oversight by the Bar.
