Today's NYT editorial page features this headline "Addressing the Justice Gap: The poor need representation and thousands of law school graduates need work." The editorial advocates a number of solutions, such as increased funding for the Legal Services Corporation, required reporting of pro bono work, permitting nonlawyers to handle routine legal services, and an expansion of loan forgiveness programs. In my mind, another important solution is notably absent: permitting corporations and other nonlawyer sources to own and invest in law practices. This sort of external funding has the potential to increase more accessible and affordable legal services in response to the very need identified by the NYT piece:
In civil proceedings like divorces, child support cases, home foreclosures, bankruptcies and landlord-tenant disputes, the number of people representing themselves in court has soared since the economy soured. Experts estimate that four-fifths of low-income people have no access to a lawyer when they need one. Research shows that litigants representing themselves often fare less well than those with lawyers. This “justice gap” falls heavily on the poor, particularly in overburdened state courts.
While the American Bar Association historically has opposed nonlawyer ownership and investment, the Ethics 20/20 Commission recently approved the drafting of a proposed change to ABA Model Rule 5.4 that would allow law firms to include nonlaywers in minority ownership roles (see here). This is an important first step, and one that should be explored as we look at ways to narrow the justice gap in this country.