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Thompson Hine LLP, a full-service business law firm with approximately 400 lawyers in 11 offices, was ranked number 1 in the category “Most innovative North American law firms: New working models” by The Financial Times and was 1 of 7 firms shortlisted for The American Lawyer’s inaugural Legal Services Innovation Award. The firm has been recognized by the National Law Journal as a Legal Technology Trailblazer and featured by Bloomberg for its innovative service delivery models, which drive accuracy and predictability. The firm’s commitment to innovation is embodied in Thompson Hine SmartPaTHTM – a smarter way to work – predictable, efficient and aligned with client goals. For more information, please visit ThompsonHine.com and ThompsonHine.com/SmartPaTH.

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<img style="max-width: 100%;height: auto;max-width: 100%;height: auto" loading="lazy" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-3260" src="https://www.thelawforlawyerstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/754/2017/04/Future-300x225.jpg" alt="Road Sign with THE FUTURE and Sky" width="300" height="225">What is the future of legal services in the U.S.?&nbsp; How should the enormous unmet need for services &mdash; to the middle class and to the&nbsp;poor &mdash; be met?&nbsp; <a href="http://filehost.thompsonhine.com/uploads/Judy_Perry_Martinez_bio_b51b.pdf">Judy Perry Martinez</a>, the Chair of the <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/centers_commissions/commission-on-the-future-of-legal-services.html">ABA Commission on the Future of Legal Services</a>, was in Cleveland last week, and discussed the Commission&rsquo;s&nbsp;100+ page <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/images/abanews/2016FLSReport_FNL_WEB.pdf">report </a>and some of its controversial recommendations.&nbsp; She spoke at the <a href="http://www.clemetrobar.org/cmba_prod/cmba/?WebsiteKey=bd5c4afd-969a-412d-9aa2-9b677d28e1a9">Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association</a> to members of its ethics committee and other bar leaders. Martinez&rsquo; talk was wide ranging.
<ul>
<li>On-line service providers are here to stay:&nbsp; Entities like Avvo, Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom now have a presence&nbsp;in some legal market segments, said Martinez, and &ldquo;they are not going away.&rdquo;&nbsp; Lawyers must acknowledge this force, and that &ldquo;they&nbsp;are no doubt innovating in a way that consumers of justice are paying attention to.&rdquo;&nbsp; Like attorney advertising, which was once derided but is now ubiquitous, on-line service delivery platforms are &ldquo;now part of the ecosystem.&rdquo;&nbsp; The challenge is to&nbsp;ensure that these and other technology-driven&nbsp;models meet the standards most critically important to the profession.&nbsp; The Commission report recommends that state courts adopt the <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/images/office_president/final_regulatory_objectives_resolution_november_2015.pdf">ABA Model Regulatory Objectives for the Provision of Legal Services</a>, so that if and when a court examines on-line or other providers (including lawyers),&nbsp;any regulation is guided by the stated&nbsp;objectives.&nbsp;&nbsp; These include such core principles as independence of legal judgment, protection of confidential and privileged information and&nbsp;accessible civil remedies for negligence and discipline for misconduct.</li>
<li>The public needs more from us:&nbsp; The Commission&rsquo;s report details a huge unmet need for legal services.&nbsp; In some jurisdictions, more than 80 percent of the civil legal needs of low-income people and the majority of middle-income people go unmet &mdash; even as new law graduates struggle to find work.&nbsp; &ldquo;Our efforts have woefully failed&rdquo; so far, Martinez said,&nbsp;to meet the goal of providing some form of effective assistance for the essential civil legal needs of all people otherwise unable to afford a lawyer &mdash; which is the Commission&rsquo;s #1 recommendation.</li>
<li>We&rsquo;re trained to be innovation-averse:&nbsp; Our legal training itself makes lawyers resistant to change, and that threatens to leave us behind.&nbsp; We are trained to look at the past, and to avoid unnecessary risk.&nbsp; The traditional service delivery models that we accordingly embrace&nbsp;constrain innovation, and can limit access to justice.&nbsp; Yet, it is crucial to overcome these barriers.&nbsp; &ldquo;If we don&rsquo;t shape the future, others will,&rdquo; said Martinez.</li>
<li>Despite adverse comment from the rank-and-file, conversation about &ldquo;ABS&rdquo; continues:&nbsp; Permitting non-lawyer ownership stakes in law firms (aka&nbsp;&ldquo;alternative business structure&rdquo;)&nbsp;has generated much controversy; it is currently barred in every jurisdiction except the District of Columbia (although in the state of Washington, a very narrow form is encompassed under&nbsp;its <a href="http://www.wsba.org/licensing-and-lawyer-conduct/limited-licenses/legal-technicians">Limited License Legal Technician program</a>).&nbsp;&nbsp;In 2016, the <a href="http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/should_nonlawyers_be_allowed_to_own_law_firms_aba_commission_revisits_the_i">ABA solicited comments on its issue paper</a> on ABS for law firms, including non-lawyer ownership.&nbsp;&nbsp;Based on&nbsp;a lack of data showing that ABS would benefit the public, and being aware of&nbsp;<a href="https://blogs.wsj.com/law/2016/05/12/nonlawyer-ownership-of-law-firms-is-a-bad-idea-say-bar-groups/">opposition from some</a>, the ABA recommended continued exploration.&nbsp; According to Martinez, the issue is continuing as a topic of discussion at bar association and court meetings, and those interested are&nbsp;watching developments in the UK, where ABS is growing.&nbsp; What should the burden of proof on the issue be, asked Martinez:&nbsp; that there is &ldquo;no evidence of harm to the public,&rdquo; or that there is &ldquo;evidence of benefit to the public&rdquo;?</li>
</ul>
What can be done on the local level?&nbsp; Martinez said that lawyer education aimed at helping lawyers and judges understand the benefits of applying technological innovations to the access-to-justice problem was front and center, and that every bar association should be incorporating a futures component into its long-range planning.
Bottom line:&nbsp; we lawyers had&nbsp;better get on board because like it or not, the future is&nbsp;here, and it holds opportunities for the profession and&nbsp;for increased access to justice.

core/freeform

Ethics

Legal Ethics, Professional Responsibility and the Business of Law

Tech innovation must shape legal practice, ABA Futures Comm’n chair says