Is it interpreted as singular, "an attorney", or can you send NSLs to everyone in the American Bar Association for a second opinion?

It's good to shop around, especially here in California, one of the states where graduates from non-accredited law schools can join the bar. :-)

I can't see a reasonable way of establishing bona fides other than creating a strong implication/inference of "national security".

(My wife is a federal attorney, and it is disappointing how warped "the government's" perspectives are on rights and what is reasonable.)