Skip to main content
Article
How to Regulate Legal Services to Improve Access, Innovation, and the Quality of Lawyering
Hastings Law Journal (2016)
  • Gillian K Hadfield
  • Deborah L. Rhode
Abstract
Proposals to change the regulatory framework for the legal profession to increase access to legal services have been made for decades.  The organized bar frequently responds to these proposals by raising concerns about the difficulty of regulating alternative providers and corporate legal services entities with nonlawyer investors or managers.  In this paper we explore the nature of the regulatory challenge.  By reviewing in detail the approach developed in the U.K. under the 2007 Legal Services Act—which initiated a licensing regime for legal services entities including but not limited to lawyer-owned law firms—we demonstrate the feasibility, and benefits, of developing an analogous regime in the U.S.    
Keywords
  • access to justice,
  • nonlawyer,
  • legal services act,
  • legal profession,
  • legal ethics,
  • professional regulation
Publication Date
2016
Citation Information
Gillian K Hadfield and Deborah L. Rhode. "How to Regulate Legal Services to Improve Access, Innovation, and the Quality of Lawyering" Hastings Law Journal Vol. 67 Iss. 5 (2016) p. 1191 - 1224
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/ghadfield/60/