The fifth virtual Redesigning Legal Speaker Series will take place online on Thursday, Feb. 24, and explore the impact on bar associations of the regulatory changes in the legal profession that some predict will be transformational.
Utah and Arizona have already enacted sweeping changes to how legal services can be delivered and who can provide them. Nationally, no fewer than 10 other states are in different stages of exploring, recommending or implementing regulatory change that would generally allow nonlawyers to provide some legal services.
The changes pose new challenges to individual state bar groups, whose membership can be compulsory (usually called unified or integrated), or of a voluntary nature, such as the American Bar Association.
The program will specifically examine the status of some 33 mandatory state bars, as well as the most recent legal challenges to them based, in part, that compelling dues violates members’ First Amendment rights. In addition, panelists will offer insight to the innovative ways bars are meeting these challenges.
The program will be moderated by Joe Sullivan, former president of the State Bar of Montana and president-elect of the National Center of Bar Presidents (NCBP).
Others on the panel are:
• John M. Stewart, a former president of The Florida Bar and shareholder in the firm of Gray Robinson. He focuses his practice on trust and estate litigation, mediation and arbitration. Stewart now serves on the executive committee of the NCBP and chairs The Florida Bar’s Special Committee to Improve the Delivery of Legal Services.
• Vice Chief Justice Ann A. Scott Timmer of the Arizona Supreme Court, who has served since 2012. Prior to her appointment, Timmer was a judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals from 2000 to 2012, serving three years as chief judge. She also chaired the state Supreme Court’s Legal Services Task Force, which recently recommended removing barriers for lawyers and nonlawyers to share fees.
• Janet Welch, who served as executive director of the State Bar of Michigan from 2007 to 2021. She has an extensive history of involvement in court and legal profession reform, and has presented nationally and internationally on the role of bar associations in access to justice and the future of legal services,
Registration is free but required in advance and can be completed by visiting www.americanbar.org.
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