CBA Record July-August 2015

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48 JULY/AUGUST 2015
LEGAL ETHICS
BY JOHN LEVIN
Sole Practitioners and Serving the
Middle Class
This is part three of a three-part
series. The previous two columns
discussed the surplus of law school
graduates unable to find work and the lack
of affordable legal services for the middle
class. One possible way to ameliorate this
problem is to license non-lawyer legal prac-
titioners to provide some of these services.
(This solution is under consideration in a
number of venues creating the predictable
furor.) Another is for the surplus lawyers
currently graduating from law schools to
provide these services either as lower paid
employees of firms or as sole practitioners.
It is the latter alternative that prompted
this column.
The April 26 edition of the Chicago Daily
Law Bulletin ran an article by John Flynn
Rooney reporting that sole practitioners
had more disciplinary matters before the
Illinois ARDC than did attorneys working
within firms. Some of the reasons given
were the increasing complexity of running
a law office and the lack of back-up in a solo
practice. The statistic also reminded me of
statements made by George Overton, who
wrote this column for the CBA Record for
many years. He said that a sole practitioner
who tried to take on every case ran a high
John Levin is the retired Assis-
tant General Counsel of GATX
Corporation and a member of
the CBARecord Editorial Board.
risk of malpractice. The law had become
so complex and specialized that there was
no way to do it all.
For example, imagine someone walking
into an office with a question about his or
her pension benefits. There is no practical
way a lawyer could effectively answer the
question unless that lawyer were an expert
or had the time to do the necessary research
(and a client willing to pay for it). The law
is simply too complex. Recent changes in
Illinois regarding handling of retainers and
client funds, while not complex, add a level
of administration which impacts the sole
practitioner more than the firm lawyer. To
make matters even harder, Rule of Profes-
sional Conduct 1.1 (competence) has been
interpreted to include technological com-
petence and the understanding and use of
social media. These topics require special
training and evolve almost daily.
Some of these problems are the unin-
tended consequences of actions of the
legal profession. As a society we try and
correct problems and perceived injustice
through laws and regulations. As lawyers,
we are only too willing to help. However,
as a consequence, minor personal matters
John Levin’s Ethics columns,
which are published in each
CBA Record, are now in-
dexed and available online.
For more, go to
legalethics/.
ETHICS QUESTIONS?
The CBA’s Professional Responsibility Commit-
tee can help. Submit hypothetical questions to
Loretta Wells, CBA Government Affairs Direc-
tor, by fax 312/554-2054 or e-mail lwells@
.
affecting ordinary middle class people
become enmeshed in seemingly Byzantine
regulations that should only realistically
apply to complex institutions. And lawyers
have to master these regulations to properly
advise their clients.
So what are possible remedies? The
simplest is to change the law to make it
more workable when applied to ordinary
middle class people–but this is hopelessly
aspirational. For lawyers, the best advice is
to work within your competency or areas in
which you can quickly learn the law. Oth-
erwise, pass the matter on to the experts.
For the middle class client, there is no easy
answer. There will simply be questions that
can only be handled by high-priced firm
attorneys–and these questions will likely
go unanswered.
RESOURCE PORTAL FOR SOLO PRACITITONERS AND SMALL FIRMS
That the CBA has a FREE resource portal for solo small firm members? Access archived programs on firm
marketing, start up tips, legal software demos, client development and more. Go to ,
click on the Resources tab, then Solo Small Firm Resource Portal, or call 312/554-2070.