The USA television series Suits revolves around Mike Ross practicing law without a degree and about trying to keep that secret.
Mike Ross is clearly capable of being a lawyer. He passed the bar exam (albeit probably not under his own name). Is there an in-universe explanation for why he doesn't just quietly get a law degree from somewhere (possibly far away from the show's setting of New York)? (And some states don't even require a law degree; passing the bar is sufficient.) He'd still have to carry around a secret that he didn't actually graduate from Harvard Law, but that's far better than practicing law illegally. And even though he's already been practicing law without a license, if he became a real lawyer, then only his past cases would be tainted (and possibly need to be revisited) and not all of his future ones.
(And obviously the out-of-universe explanation is that it's the entire premise to the show, but I'm curious if the writers ever tried to explain this.)