Unlocking Legal Regulation

The American Bar Association Center for Innovation has released the inaugural issue of the Innovation Trends Report, which explores innovation within the ABA, in legal technology, and in legal regulatory reform.

In February, IAALS and its partners, including the National Conference of Bar Presidents, continued the Redesigning Legal Speaker Series with a panel exploring the role of state bars in regulatory reform.

In December, IAALS and its partners continued the Redesigning Legal Speaker Series with a panel exploring the opportunities being created by regulatory innovation for legal education.

Lawmakers in California recently spoke out against the state bar's exploration of regulatory reform as a means to address the access-to-justice crisis. However, the need for efficient and affordable legal services is growing exponentially—and data suggests that legal services innovation could a key part of the solution.

Under many states’ current regulatory framework, a lawyer is the only option when it comes to addressing legal issues. Fortunately, however, a number of states are looking beyond lawyers—to limited licensed paraprofessionals, lay advocates, court navigators, and other types of allied legal professionals—in order to close the justice gap. And that number is growing.  

Despite trepidation from some in the legal community around the idea of nonlawyers providing legal services, newly released data from Utah's sandbox proves those fears unfounded—and that, in fact, the opposite is true. Sandbox providers are bringing a variety of safe legal services to thousands of consumers.

In August, IAALS and its partners continued the Redesigning Legal Speaker Series with a panel exploring how lawyers and other legal professionals can help to solve access-to-justice problems using new advances in technology—while building sustainable practices at the same time.

We’re researchers who study legal services regulation and access to the civil justice system. We’ve been thrilled to watch groundbreaking announcements from the West ignite a wide-ranging national debate about how best to regulate legal training, services, and businesses—and we’ve been paying special attention to the role people who are not lawyers are playing in the process of legal re-regulation.

In June, the Special Committee to Improve the Delivery of Legal Services submitted its final report to the Florida Supreme Court, recommending that Florida adopt a Law Practice Innovation Laboratory Program where recommendations, such as amended rules surrounding fee-splitting and law firm ownership as well as regulated nonlawyer providers of limited legal services, would be tested and evaluated.

This month, IAALS and its partners kicked off the Redesigning Legal Speaker Series with a panel exploring how judicial leadership can play a critical role in expanding access to legal services and access to justice. The panelists discussed the status of regulatory innovation, how courts and others are seeking to address the problems, and why state supreme courts and the organized bar must start forging solutions now.