LACBA Future of Lawyering Task Force
Founded in 2019, LACBA’s Future of Lawyering Ad Hoc Task Force has monitored and responded to proposals by the State Bar of California to intentionally diminish the quality of the legal profession.
Recently, the State Bar has sought to adopt numerous proposals that would reduce ethical standards and training requirements designed to protect the public. These include efforts to allow (a) profit-sharing between corporations and lawyers, (b) create non-licensed “paraprofessionals” to practice law and (c) drastically loosen educational and training standards required by new lawyers and law students, among others. LACBA’s Future of Lawyering Ad Hoc Task Force will focus on the manner in which tomorrow’s lawyers are prepared to meet the needs of the public in light of technological challenges. It will also consider the way in which technological challenges may both aid – but also detract from – the provision of the highest quality legal services to members of the public. The future of lawyering will depend on the ability of professionals to respond to the needs of a growing populace in need of access to justice, while providing the ethical protections of the law as developed through painstaking judicial, legislative and regulatory means.
In part due to the efforts of LACBA and the FOL, the 2022 legislative State Bar funding bill limited the State Bar’s ability to engage in expensive, non-disciplinary function. Shockingly, the State Bar has announced that it will in fact continue to research, promote and engage in these activities.
The State Bar’s actions in this area have largely been done with the bare minimum of public notice, extremely short public comment periods and a lack of true community participation from the practicing legal community. As a result of the State Bar’s continuing refusal to work with practicing attorneys – and even continuing to denigrate its own licensees -- LACBA’s Future of Lawyering has been tasked with continuing to do the following:
- Propose and promote elimination of all consideration of means for non-attorney practice of law; and
- Reform the post-2017 State Bar trustee board structure to include more oversight by practicing lawyers
- Call for greater transparency regarding State Bar efforts to radically revise the practice of law
Membership in the Task Force is strongly encouraged for all California Bar Association leaders, and new liaison positions may be created upon application for other bar associations upon request. Membership in the Task Force is also open by application; please contact the Task Force Chair, Carolin Shining, for more information.
Committee Leadership
