We have a new call for papers in Professional Responsibility.  It’s the law regulating the business of law.

AALS Section on Professional Responsibility 

2020 Annual Meeting

Call for Papers Announcement

Confronting the Big Questions About the Regulation of the Legal Profession

Saturday, January 4, 2020
10:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

Washington, D.C.

The AALS Professional Responsibility Section is pleased to announce a Call for Papers for the Section’s program at the AALS 2020 Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. 

Program Description:

In its 2016 Final Report, the American Bar Association Presidential Commission on the Future of Legal Services concluded after a two-year inquiry that “technology, globalization, and other forces continue to transform how, why, and by whom legal services are accessed and delivered. Familiar and traditional practice structures are giving way in a marketplace that continues to evolve. New providers are emerging, online and offline, to offer a range of services in dramatically different ways. The legal profession, as the steward of the justice system, has reached an inflection point. Without significant change, the profession cannot ensure that the justice system serves everyone and that the rule of law is preserved. Innovation, and even unconventional thinking, is required.” Some of this change must come in the form of fundamental reconsideration of how we regulate the legal profession, the practice of law, and the delivery of legal services.  This program calls for scholars to heed the ABA Futures Commission’s call and apply unconventional thinking  to confront the big questions about the future of lawyer regulation.

Topics addressed at the program might include: 

• What does the market for legal services look like today?
• What regulatory changes need to be made to improve the delivery of legal services?   
• Do the current prohibitions on multidisciplinary practice, nonlawyer ownership of law firms, multijurisdictional practice, and the unauthorized practice of law need to be reconsidered in the interest of improving the delivery of legal services? 
• What regulations are necessary to ensure ethical delivery of services and consumer protection? 
• What regulatory changes have been implemented in other countries and what impact have those changes had on the delivery of legal services?

Submission Information: 

Papers should be submitted to the section chair, Ben Cooper, via email at bcooper@olemiss.edu, no later than September 1, 2019, with the subject line: PR Section Call for Papers. 1-2 papers will be selected from the Call for Papers to be presented at the section program along with other panelists, including ABA President Judy Perry Martinez, Professor William Henderson, and Professor Rebecca Sandefur.