ABA Center for Innovation

    Resolution 115

    Encouraging Regulatory Innovation

    Final Resolution and Report

    CENTER FOR INNOVATION
    STANDING COMMITTEE ON THE DELIVERY OF LEGAL SERVICES
    STANDING COMMITTEE ON ETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
    STANDING COMMITTEE ON PROFESSIONAL REGULATION
    STANDING COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC PROTECTION IN THE PROVISION OF LEGAL SERVICES

    REPORT TO THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES
    REVISED RESOLUTION

    RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association encourages U.S. jurisdictions to consider innovative approaches to the access to justice crisis in order to help the more than 80% of people below the poverty line and the many middle-income Americans who lack meaningful access to effective civil legal services.

    FURTHER RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association encourages U.S. jurisdictions to consider regulatory innovations that have the potential to improve the accessibility, affordability, and quality of civil legal services, while also ensuring necessary and appropriate protections that best serve clients and the public, including the provision of legal counsel as a matter of right and at government expense for children facing essential civil legal matters and for low-income individuals in adversarial proceedings where basic human needs or a loss of physical liberty are at stake.
            
    FURTHER RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association encourages U.S. jurisdictions to collect and assess data regarding regulatory innovations both before and after their adoption to ensure that changes are effective in increasing access to legal services and are in the interest of clients and the public.

    FURTHER RESOLVED, That nothing in this Resolution should be construed as recommending any changes to any of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, including Rule 5.4, as they relate to nonlawyer ownership of law firms, the unauthorized practice of law, or any other subject.

    To view a PDF of the resolution as adopted as well as the report, please click here.  A video of the House of Delegates debate can be found here.

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    Background Information