Legal Non-Profits Win Major Victory in California's Supreme Court

by Beyond Chron (reposted)

Sat, Mar 11, 2006 10:13AM

The California Supreme Court ruled unanimously yesterday to uphold the right of non-profit advocacy groups to practice law, handing a major victory to these non-profits and the people they represent. The case, Frye vs. Tenderloin Housing Clinic, began as an attempt by landlord attorney Andrew Zacks to stop the Clinic from representing low-income tenants. The attempt backfired, however, when more than 70 other non-profit corporations from across the state, ranging from the far-right Pacific Legal Foundation to the American Civil Liberties Union, came out in support of the Clinic’s and non-profits’ right to practice law. The Court took notice, stating in their decision that ruling against the Clinic would defeat “the First Amendment principle that groups can unite to assert their legal rights.”

The Frye decision, the culmination of over eight years of legal battles, turns back a recent Court of Appeals decision that could have put hundreds of non-profit groups across the state out of business.

Frye began in 1993, when Tenderloin Housing Clinic (THC) attorney Steve Collier sued Skyline Realty on behalf of fifteen tenants at the President Hotel and won. When the court awarded THC attorneys fees for the case, prominent Ellis Act eviction attorney Zacks cried foul. Zacks filed suit against THC, claiming that because THC hadn’t registered with the State Bar of California, they broke the law by defending the tenants and accepting legal fees.

The Superior Court shot the suit down, but the plantiffs perservered, and the case moved to the Court of Appeals. When the Court of Appeals sided with Zacks and against THC, it set off a firestorm amongst the non-profit legal community.

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http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=3029#more

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