After a recent study found that ethics rules which prevent lawyers from working with other disciplines is driving up the cost of legal services and pricing consumers out of the legal market, California’s State Bar is taking steps to allow lawyers and firms to evolve their business practices and keep up with the times.
The California State Bar’s Task Force on Access Through Innovation of Legal Services is now welcoming public comments on proposed amendments to their Rules of Professional Responsibility that would allow “legal technicians” to offer legal advice and nonlawyers to hold a financial interest in law firms.
Specifically, the Task Force is suggesting modifications that call for:
- Allowing nonlawyers to provide specified legal advice and services.
- Allowing entities that provide legal or law-related services to be made up of lawyers, nonlawyers or a combination of the two.
- Allowing lawyers to be part of a law firm in which a nonlawyer holds a financial interest.
- Allowing state-approved businesses to use legal technology to deliver legal services
With these propositions, the Task Force is also recommending new forms of regulation. Nonlawyers would be subject to appropriate guidelines when providing legal advice. Entities providing legal services that would employ lawyers, nonlawyers, or a combination of the two, would continue to follow certain restrictions based on the type of entity.
Further, though the Task Force is advocating for the possibility of law firms being financially backed by non-lawyers, the Task Force offers two options for regulating their proposal. The first option would add requirements requiring the nonlawyers to provide services that assist the lawyers or law firm in providing competent and ethical legal services and require that the nonlawyers have no power to direct or control the professional judgment of the lawyers. The second option would simply allow lawyers to share fees with nonlawyers as long as the client provides written consent.
Regarding the use of technology for legal services, the California Bar would also establish ethical standards governing the provider and the technology. Client communications with such entities would be covered by attorney-client privilege.
See more on the proposed amendments here, and find the Task Force’s commissioned report on the legal market here.
