So if your attorney friend is correct she has been practicing her "sham" illegally for quite some time. So if your attorney friend is correct she has been practicing her "sham" illegally for quite some time.If I have a client in California and they want to file suit out there in federal court, I simply hire a California attorney as local counsel, he enters an appearance and files the pro hac motion in the federal court for me, and after it is granted, I litigate the case and I use the local counsel as a mail drop basically. Goes on all the time in big firms and it is not an issue. The problem is the Massachusetts office... That is dicey to say the least.