February saw many strides in re-envisioning the delivery of legal services. The Conference of Chief Justices passed a resolution urging its members to consider regulatory innovations, and the ABA House of Delegates overwhelmingly passed a similar resolution. We also kicked off our Spring Speaker Series with an engaging talk from ABA President-elect Patricia Refo, who outlined the many questions posed by changes in regulating legal services while also stressing that we must address our country’s ever-growing justice needs. We are grateful to the president-elect for her thought-provoking talk, and we encourage you to register for the next two sessions.
Our Family Justice Advisory Committee met here in Denver last week, and we productively discussed current and potential work in this area. And, on the publications front, the Civil Justice Initiative Roadmap Implementation report will soon be released. Finally, I hope you can join us for our 13th Annual Rebuilding Justice Award Dinner on April 16, when we will honor Margaret Hagan and the late Chief Justice Mark Cady for their leadership and innovation in advancing our justice system.
Scott Bales, Executive Director March 2020
IAALS and NCSC Release White Paper on Debt Collection Reform: To address the challenges posed by the rising number of debt collection cases in our state courts—including high rates of self-represented litigants and default judgments—IAALS and the National Center for State Courts have released a new white paper that presents a model approach to reform in these cases.
ABA President-Elect Patricia Refo Outlines Questions Surrounding Re-Regulation: On February 26, IAALS and the University of Denver Sturm College of Law had the privilege of hosting ABA President-elect Patricia Refo for a talk and Q&A regarding the re-regulation of legal services. Refo explored how re-regulation could address the access to justice gap, as well as the questions the legal profession must address in the wake of innovation.
Building a Better Bar Project Nears End of New Lawyer Focus Groups, Begins Qualitative Analysis: Since the launch of our Building a Better Bar project last July, IAALS has made significant headway in empirically defining the minimum competence law school students need to move on to successful practice. As of mid-February, we've held nearly 40 focus group sessions and are preparing for a thorough analysis of the rich qualitative data.
Overwhelming Support for ABA Resolution Encouraging Regulatory Innovation: Last month, the ABA House of Delegates passed Resolution 115, encouraging regulatory innovations to expand access to justice. The ABA now joins the Conference of Chief Justices in this call to action—putting bar leadership on this issue on par with the leadership shown by the courts.
NSRLP Releases 2018/2019 Report on the Trends of Self-Represented Litigants: The National Self-Represented Litigants Project has released a new report on the demographics of SRLs in Canada, including their income, education level, party status, and experience with legal services. While some of the results may come as no surprise, others are more eyebrow-raising.
Be sure to read all of the news from IAALS on our blog.
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February 24: "The Fight Over the Future of Law Firm Ownership Has Put an Industry at Odds" in The American Lawyer
February 18: "ABA Says Industry Regs Need A Rethink, But Will It Matter?" in Law360
February 18: "US bar rules reform: 'without external agencies, change is almost impossible'" in The Global Legal Post
February 16: "Guest opinion: The case against electing judges" in Deseret News
February 13: "Conference of Chief Justices Supports Regulatory Innovation to Improve Access to Justice" in 2Civility
February 5: "Legalweek 2020: Open Access - Utah, California, Arizona, Oh My! What Changes to Law Firm Ownership Rules Really Mean" on Legal Talk Network's On the Road podcast
