A new volume, edited by Rhode Center Co-Directors and Stanford Law School professors David Freeman Engstrom and Nora Freeman Engstrom (and available open access on Cambridge Core), brings together leading legal scholars and practitioners to propose new conceptual frameworks for reform, drawing lessons from other professions, industries, and places, both within the United States and across the world. Rethinking the Lawyers’ Monopoly: Access to Justice and the Future of Legal Services seeks to help shape and steer the coming revolution in the legal services marketplace. To bring these discussions off the page, the Rhode Center is launching a four-part webinar series exploring various facets of the lawyers’ monopoly.
1. Conceptualizing Legal Services Regulation
With the understanding that more lawyers doing more work will not close the justice gap, stakeholders are embracing a more holistic and nuanced gaze that expands beyond the simple supply of lawyers. This webinar explored diverse frameworks to guide how we think about the changing market for legal services.
Moderator: Malka Herman–Executive Director of the Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession, Stanford Law School
Panelists:
Access Part I of the Lawyers’ Monopoly edited edition here.
2. Lessons from the Field: On-the-Ground Efforts to Effect Positive Regulatory Innovations
Numerous reforms to the legal services market are already off and running. A handful of states are leading the pack, enacting revolutionary reforms that open the legal profession to outside investment and permit nonlawyer provision of legal services. This webinar canvassed a subset of existing reforms and surfaced lessons to help guide further experimentation.
Moderator: David Freeman Engstrom–LSVF Professor in Law, Stanford Law School & Co-Director, Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession
Panelists:
Access Part II of the Lawyers’ Monopoly edited edition here.
3. The Comparative Lens
There are lessons to be learned from other industries and other places regarding both loosening restrictions on the legal services market and responding to the rise of new providers and technologies. This webinar applied a comparative lens to recent efforts by American reformers.
Moderator: Brianne Holland-Stergar–Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Montana School of Law
Panelists:
Access Part III of the Lawyers’ Monopoly edited edition here.
4. New Frontiers: Charting the Future of Legal Services
The contours of the future of legal services are far from clear and sketching them out requires one to grapple with a bevy of interrelated questions. This webinar will leverage different perspectives to explore some of these questions, offering policymakers and other stakeholders a rich landscape for critical exploration and action.
Moderator: Natalie Anne Knowlton–Associate Director for Legal Innovation, Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession
Panelists:
- David Freeman Engstrom–LSVF Professor in Law, Stanford Law School & Co-Director, Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession
- John Haddock–Chief Business Officer, Harvey
- Daniel B. Rodriguez–Harold Washington Professor of Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
