2:20 \u2014 Jacqui Bowman of Greater Boston Legal Services kicks off the final panel of the day with a picture of a day at GBLS.<\/p>\n
2:24 \u2014 Bowman: GBLS makes difficult choices between serving people in dire circumstances, gives example of choosing to represent one battered woman seeking a divorce but not another because the latter\u2019s husband respected the restraining order on him.<\/p>\n
2:27 \u2014 Bowman: Legal Services has a \u201ctwin mission\u201d of promoting access to justice and helping eradicate poverty, but sometimes we forget the second part of that mission.<\/p>\n
2:29 \u2014 Bowman: A civil Gideon would prevent people from being subject to the vagaries of funding for legal service programs when their critical legal rights are threatened.<\/p>\n
2:31 \u2014 Bowman: We need to continue to work with law students to ensure that they come out of law school understanding the commitment to access to justice.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
2:33 \u2014 Bowman: Funding system makes no sense. \u00a0There are some federal funds, and then some mirror funds for programs for people who don\u2019t qualify. \u00a0Pro bono programs rely on attorneys from those two programs to mentor\/train young attorneys, and self-help materials require attorneys from those two programs to write them.<\/p>\n
2:34 \u2014 John Farmer, from Rutgers, \u201cwhere we treat our law students better than our basketball players,\u201d begins his presentation.<\/p>\n
2:36 \u2014 Farmer: In New Jersey, there were 172,000 landlord-tenant disputes, and 99% had no counsel. \u00a0Ninety seven percent of small claims disputes had no counsel involved. \u00a0This is likely a result of the very high hourly rates, which are largely pegged to Wall Street firm rates.<\/p>\n
2:38 \u2014 Farmer: The culture of the legal profession is at issue here\u2013aggressive marketing, relentless pursuit of the bottom line has become the rule of the day to the exclusion of the notion of law as a public service.<\/p>\n
2:40 \u2014 Farmer: Suggests the formation of a non-profit law firm that would hire recent graduates for 2-3 years and try to represent low and middle income clients. \u00a0Arizona State has started a similar kind of program.<\/p>\n
2:42 \u2014 Farmer: Potential models include charging a flat $50\/hr rate, \u00a0or doing a means assessment and charging people what they can afford.<\/p>\n
2:43 \u2014 Farmer: A lot of meritorious class action claims exist but don\u2019t have a high enough payoff for the private bar to take them. \u00a0The nonprofit, law school affiliated firm may be able to step in and handle some of these meritorious claims.<\/p>\n
2:45 \u2014 Farmer: \u00a0Perhaps the idea of a medical residency could be modified and applied on an even broader scale in the legal profession. \u00a0For instance, firms could hire 3 times as many associates, pay them less, and lower hourly rates accordingly.<\/p>\n
2:46 \u2014 Deborah Rhode begins her presentation by noting that it\u2019s shameful that the richest nation in the world fares so poorly in delivery of legal services and equally shameful that the legal academy has done so little to \u201caddress the structural problems in the delivery of legal services and the administration of justice.\u201d \u00a0Too many students graduate without an understanding of how the law affects those who cannot afford to invoke it.<\/p>\n
2:50 \u2014 Rhode: Recites statistics about pro bono\u2013only 39 law schools have a pro bono requirement for students, even fewer for faculty, and those that do have the requirement generally have a minimal one.<\/p>\n
2:51 \u2014 Rhode: Comes down to resources; schools must invest in staff and support services to ensure adequate supervision. \u00a0For too many schools, pro bono seems a luxury good.<\/p>\n
2:52 \u2014 Rhode: Critics say that \u201cyou can\u2019t mandate altruism,\u201d which is a valid concern, but overstated. \u00a0Administrators haven\u2019t experienced quality control problems, students who are initially skeptical become converts. \u00a0The key is to have a wide array of options.<\/p>\n
2:55 \u2014 Rhode: Courts could nudge law schools, as the New York Court of Appeals tried to do with its requirement that new bar applicants perform pro bono service.<\/p>\n
2:56 \u2014 Rhode: \u00a0Further research on legal profession might help as well, e.g. determining which experiences lead students to have more favorable views of pro bono.<\/p>\n
2:58 \u2014 Rhode: \u00a0Legal educators must do more to educate themselves and their students about the systemic failures in the profession.<\/p>\n
2:59 \u2014 Richard Zorza begins his presentation by suggesting that there is consensus in several areas where it may not be obvious.<\/p>\n
2:59 \u2014 Zorza: \u00a0The current system is working for none of the key players (attorneys, courts, legal educators), meaning that perhaps this is a time when the three can come together and achieve reform.<\/p>\n
3:01 \u2014 Zorza: We haven\u2019t figured out how to address a wide variety of needs that fall somewhere between \u201conline form\u201d and \u201clawyer for a year,\u201d nor have we sorted out sustainable business models for lawyers serving the middle class.<\/p>\n
3:04 \u2014 Zorza: \u00a0No doubt that you don\u2019t need a law degree to handle all adversarial situations, for instance nonlawyers who know unemployment or social security hearings well do better than lawyers who don\u2019t understand the systems well.<\/p>\n
3:10 \u2014 Zorza: Today, Ben Kaplan would say that the legal system we designed 100 years ago was designed in a very different world, and because of the different changes, we should consider rethinking the entire federal rules structure, if not for the federal courts then at least at the state level.<\/p>\n
3:11 \u2014 First question to the panel: There are so many pieces of the legal system facing \u201ccrisis\u201d and incentives to change, but do these incentives push them in the same directions? \u00a0Are there places where alliances or shared interests where we may see movement?<\/p>\n
3:12 \u2014 Bowman: GBLS works with the courts a lot, for instance the Lawyer for the Day program in the Boston Housing Court came as the result of conversations between the courts and legal aid providers. \u00a0There are very live examples of where people have been able to coordinate and work together.<\/p>\n
3:14 \u2014 Farmer: The challenging partner to engage is the private bar. \u00a0But the level of student indebtedness may push the private bar to help. \u00a0Students have so much debt that they have to go to a certain kind of firm and represent a certain kind of interest, and debt relief may push the private bar to action.<\/p>\n
3:18 \u2014 Suggestion from the audience: \u00a0streamline the functioning of the courts so you don\u2019t have a situation where there are 70 cases called at an early hour and attorneys are sitting and spending time. \u00a0Related suggestion: flat fee bankruptcies. \u00a0Related to how lawyers have streamlined the disability process, brought it to scale, and are making money on it.<\/p>\n
3:20 \u2014 Rhode: The resource shortages facing most states really replicate the strain facing legal service providers as state courts face massive cuts, and the courts have no organized constituency arguing for court budgets at the state house.<\/p>\n
3:22 \u2014 Farmer: Odd phenomenon where we hear that we graduate too many lawyers but cases can\u2019t move because parties come in without lawyers.<\/p>\n
3:23 \u2014 Zorza: Parties face incentive problems, as efficiency can result in lowered budgets and time spent sitting in court can result in increased billing for attorneys. \u00a0We need a long-term core vision of 100% access to justice.<\/p>\n
3:24 \u2014 Bowman: \u00a0Conversation about increasing access to justice has to involve people outside the legal profession\/academy. \u00a0As long as lawyers are the butt of jokes, people won\u2019t care that law students are coming out with debt and without a job, or that people are showing up in court without representation.<\/p>\n
3:25 \u2014 Dean Martha Minow weighs in, noting that New Hampshire recently made great strides in access to justice, perhaps because it\u2019s a small enough state that person-to-person interactions helped move the issue along. \u00a0There\u2019s a real risk that those with access to resources will create their own alternative justice system. \u00a0Law schools need to think out of the box and think about the limits of legal expertise in tackling some of these issues.<\/p>\n
3:32 \u2014 Zorza: Perhaps research on the effectiveness of client members of legal service boards would be interesting to see.<\/p>\n
3:33 \u2014 And that\u2019s a wrap for the day! \u00a0Thanks to all who attended the symposium in person and\/or followed via twitter or the HLPR Blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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