Changing Times In The Legal Profession - A Survey Of Practicing Lawyers

Abstract

INTRODUCTION|A CHANGING SCENE Admission to law practice and the provision of legal services are evolving rapidly in the 21st century as a result of new attitudes, new demands, new patterns in American society, and advances in technology. The following are a few examples of this changing scene: |• Legal education is less and less local. Every law school attracts students from different states, every law school offers a broad, national curriculum in keeping with the American Bar Association ("ABA") requirements, and Juris Doctor ("J.D.") graduates from every accredited law school have the freedom to sit for the bar exam in any state. At the same time, bar exams are becoming more standardized throughout the country. In most states the exam no longer serves as a barrier to students who have studied elsewhere. |• Business, investing, personal affairs, disputes, and even criminal activity are increasingly multistate in character, and it is natural that clients would wish to have their attorneys provide services wherever needed. |• For many segments of the United States population, the cost of traditional legal services is simply too high. There is a critical need for less expensive options. |• There is increasing awareness that persons other than fully trained lawyers can offer competent legal advice and handle legal tasks. This trend is also seen in health care, where a variety of practitioners with different levels of education and licensure are supplementing and even competing with the services traditionally provided by medical doctors...