Practice Groups: Physician, Heal Thyself— Regulatory Reform of the Legal Profession

In the twentieth century, state supreme courts and legislatures limited the practice of law to licensed law school graduates and prevented nonlawyers from investing in law firms. This regulatory structure has not yielded a sufficient supply of affordable legal services to keep pace with demand: despite government and charitable funding and pro bono work, over 90% of the basic civil legal needs of low-income Americans now go unmet.
As lawyers have taken an interest in regulatory reform in this century, some have begun to scrutinize our own profession and explore whether innovative structural changes can help close this justice gap. The experts on this panel will equip attendees to consider reform in their states by examining the pros and cons of three such changes: (1) licensing legal paraprofessionals to perform limited legal services; (2) allowing nonlawyers to invest in legal service providers; and (3) reforming legal education and licensure to increase the supply of lawyers, especially in underserved geographic and practice areas.
Featuring:

Hon. Clint Bolick, Justice, Supreme Court of Arizona
Hon. Charles Canady, Chief Justice, Florida Supreme Court
Ms. Danielle Hirsch, Managing Director, Court Consulting Division, National Center for State Courts
Ms. Lucy Ricca, Executive Director, Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession, Stanford Law School
Moderator: Hon. J. Brett Busby, Justice, Texas Supreme Court