CBA Record November 2016

40 / 48

Save Money on Member
Discount Programs
Save on Lexis, virtual and temporary office
space, Alliant Credit Union, client credit card
processing, car rentals, UPS, magazine sub-
scriptions, legal software and more. Visit www.
for more information and
links to our discount providers. These programs
have been negotiated to offer you savings and
special offers as a value-added benefit of your
CBAmembership. Make the most of your mem-
bership investment and check out these savings!
40 NOVEMBER 2016
LEGAL ETHICS
BY JOHN LEVIN
More on the Future of Our Profession
T his year, after a two-year study, the
ABA’s Commission on the Future
of Legal Services published its
Report on the Future of Legal Services in the
United States. The report summarizes the
Commission’s findings and recommenda-
tions on how legal services are and will be
“delivered and accessed.” It also contains
references to the voluminous work done
by the Commission in its study.
For those who have kept abreast of
the changes occurring in the legal profes-
sion–including readers of this column or
the 2015 publication of the ABA’s The
Relevant Lawyer-Reimagining the Future
of the Legal Profession, reviewed in the
February/March 2016 edition of the CBA
Record–the findings and recommenda-
tions contain little new. For everyone else,
the Report is a wake-up call to where our
profession is headed.
The thre e ma j or f i nd i ng s a re :
A. “Despite sustained efforts to expand the
public’s access to legal services, significant
unmet needs persist.” B. “Advancements in
technology and other innovations continue
to change how legal services can be accessed
and delivered.” and C. “Public trust and
confidence in obtaining justice and in
accessing legal services is compromised by
bias, discrimination, complexity, and lack
of resources.” The findings emphasize that
while many lawyers are underemployed,
there are a “vast number of unrepresented
parties” whose numbers adversely affect
John Levin is the retired Assis-
tant General Counsel of GATX
Corporation and a member of
the CBARecord Editorial Board.
John Levin’s Ethics columns,
which are published in each
CBA Record, are now in-
dexed and available online.
For more, go to
legalethics/.
the workings of the court system or who
go without necessary legal advice.
While the findings are fairly precise
in describing our existing problems, the
Commission’s recommendations, while
laudable, are overly general. For example,
recommendation 1 states, “The legal pro-
fession should support the goal of provid-
ing some form of effective assistance for
essential civil legal needs to all persons
otherwise unable to afford a lawyer.”While
it is hard to disagree with this concept, the
recommendation does not give much guid-
ance on how to meet the goal. Should the
profession support on-line legal services or
the creation of a class of non-lawyer legal
professionals who can provide affordable
services to the general public? The report
finesses these issues.
However, guidance can be found else-
where. In a resolution adopted on February
8, 2016, the ABA adopted Model Regula-
tory Objectives for the Provision of Legal
Services. They are broad. For example,
“[t]ransparency regarding the nature and
scope of legal services to be provided, the
credentials of those who provide them,
and the availability of regulatory protec-
tions[,]” and “[p]rotection of privileged
and confidential information.”
However, attached to the Resolution
is a report setting out the purpose of the
objectives. This report states that the Model
Objectives:
will be useful to guide the regula-
tion of an increasingly wide array of
already existing and possible future
legal services providers. The legal
landscape is changing at an unprec-
edented rate…. Given that these
services are already being offered to
the public, the Model Regulatory
Objectives for the Provision of Legal
Services will serve as a useful tool for
state supreme courts as they consider
how to respond to these changes.
The Commission’s Findings and Rec-
ommendations, the ABA’s adoption of
Model Regulatory Objectives, the number
of products and services already being
offered to the public–these all indicate that
market forces are creating providers of legal
services who are not licensed attorneys. We
all need to recognize this fact and work to
ensure that the services provided are of
suitable scope and quality.
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@
.