Were Egyptians under the Roman Empire banned from practicing law? If so, why?

by irrelevantpersonage
Juvenalis

No. In fact, in Egypt, under the Roman dominion (and before it, under the Ptolemies) there existed a two-tier legal system, a 'Roman' and an 'Egyptian' one. Inhabitants of the Roman dominion in Egypt could appeal to both systems of law as a means of seeking redress. These two systems were quite radically different in many regards; for example, concerning the inheritance of property by women.

The Romans were no fools; the preceding Ptolemaic rulers had had severe problems with 'race relations' between Greek 'settlers' and the then-native Egyptian populace, and excluding the majority of the population from the legal system would have been a great way to foster discontent with the occupying regime.

Source and further reading;

J. G. Keenan, 'On Law and Society in Late Roman Egypt', Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, Bd. 17, (1975), pp. 237-250 .

'The People of Greek and Roman Egypt' (with reference to material held in 'The Papyrus Collection of the University of Michigan'), University of Michigan, 2007.