The business news reports that Mary Schapiro, recently SEC chair, has followed other former regulators to Promontory Findancial, which helps banks and others with their compliance duties under federal regulations. Put aside the revolving door issues. Why isn't compliance advice legal advice?
Some principals at Promontory are lawyers but the firm is not a law firm and not all principals are lawyers.
Now, I wonder why advising on compliance is not legal advice? After all, compliance with what? Legal rules in the form of agency rules and perhpas statutes, it seems. If the firm is telling clients how to act to stay within agency rules and the implementing legislation, it is interpreting those rules and laws and applying them to the clients' circumstance.
Isn't that what lawyers do and claim a monopoly to do? Or is the compliance industry, like accounting, just too big for the UPL committees to tackle? Better to go after the former paralegal who helps pro se clients fill out forms.