When I got my first job as an admitted attorney in the 1980’s, the offer was contingent on my bringing in the original of my admission certificate - a framed 11 x 14 document! It turns out that a year earlier, an attorney at my national company was going to be profiled for an article in a local paper. The background checked revealed that he was not a licensed attorney, he had not passed a bar exam, perhaps because he had not taken one, he had not graduated law school, he had not attended or been admitted to law school and in fact, he had never attended college - he had a GED! He was one of the company’s top trial attorneys!
Twenty plus years later, I had to bring in my SS card but the company I now work for checked me out on the online database. However, in the case of this woman, she apparently stole another attorney’s ID number. In NY, name and ID number go together but I know nothing about Pennsylvania. My company doesn’t pay for our renewal fees but it does reimburse what we lay out when we provide proof.