Prater Monning had heard about out-of-state lawyers being prevented from representing civil rights clients in the 1960s South when he was still in high school. And the professional responsibility lawyer never thought he would get the chance to represent a modern-day attorney in the same predicament.

But Monning was later introduced to S. Lee Merritt, a high-profile civil rights lawyer from Philadelphia who’d gotten into trouble with Texas’ Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee (UPLC) on charges that he illegally represented clients in the state.