Earlier this year, the ABA’s Commission on the Future of Legal Services issued its long-awaited report on the future of the legal profession. Its findings and recommendations should be of little surprise to those who read our newsletter and attended our conferences.
- Many recent law school graduates are underemployed, or unemployed altogether.
- The traditional law firm model (including the almighty billable hour) constrains innovation to enhance the delivery of legal services.
- Lawyers' resistance to change further hinders innovation in the profession.
- New providers of legal services (e.g. Avvo, Axiom, Legal Zoom and Rocket Lawyer) are proliferating and providing additional choices to both clients and lawyers.
- Lawyers must learn more about entrepreneurship, innovation, law firm economics, and the business of law.
- The ABA should establish a Center for Innovation.
- The ABA should continue to explore the feasibility of Alternative Business Structures (ABSs), including non-lawyer ownership of law firms.
We encourage you to take a look at the attached report and consider its implications for your firm. We’ll be discussing the fall-out of this report in future issues of The MPF Weekly.