Abstract Members of the legal profession in Nigeria have an enormous responsibility to discharge, not only to their clients but also to the court, the profession, their professional colleagues, and the society at large. However, for some time in the recent past, both the Bench and the Bar have had cause to complain about the conduct of…
Lawtech: Levelling the Playing Field in Legal Services?
Abstract The legal services market is commonly thought of as divided into two “hemispheres”– PeopleLaw and BigLaw. These segments represent, respectively, individuals and corporate clients. The last few decades have seen an increasing concentration of resources within the legal profession toward serving corporate clients, to the alleged detriment of consumer clients. At the same time, the costs of accessing legal representation exceed…
Recognizing Another Black Barrier: The LSAT Contributes to the Diversity Gap in the Legal Profession
Abstract Imagine working your entire life with the purpose of building the house of your dreams. The ability to pursue this “calling” has been granted through your tremendous hard-work and dedication to your craft. In fact, building this dream home has been the final culmination of all that you have worked towards over the past…
The Death of the Legal Profession and the Future of Law
Abstract This article identifies the five large-scale changes that have happened or are happening to the legal profession: 1. How technology solutions have moved law from a wholly bespoke service to one that resembles an off-the-shelf commodity; 2. How globalisation and outsourcing upend traditional expectations that legal work is performed where the legal need is, and shifts production away from high…
Educating Antiracist Lawyers: The Race and the Equal Protection of the Laws Program at Dickinson Law
Abstract The year 2020 has forced us, as a nation, to recognize painful realities about systemic racism in our country and our legal system. The fallacies in our founding documents and the vestiges of our slave past are so woven into our national culture that they became hard to see except for those who suffered their daily…
“Trusted to the ends of the earth?” An analysis of solicitors’ disciplinary processes in England and Wales from 1994 to 2015
A newly released study by Boon and Whyte has collected data on lawyer’s discipline from across different eras of regulation in England and Wales. The data collected allows for a comparison of lawyer discipline before and after the introduction of the Legal Services Act 2007. The act led to the creation of separate regulatory and…
Judges and the Deregulation of the Lawyer’s Monopoly
Abstract In a revolutionary moment for the legal profession, the deregulation of legal services is taking hold in many parts of the country. Utah and Arizona, for instance, are experimenting with new regulations that permit nonlawyer advocates to play an active role in assisting citizens who may not otherwise have access to legal services. In…
Demand-Side Justice
Abstract The civil justice gap is well-known, well-documented, and widening. Although judges, practitioners, and scholars have attempted for more than fifty years to increase the supply of civil legal services available to those in need, demand continues to dramatically outstrip supply. This article argues that given the static (or worsening) state of the civil justice gap, and the…
The Future of Legal Education in the 21st Century
Abstract Technological progress will continue to fundamentally alter how we relate to each other and to our work, necessarily shaping the future of legal education. In considering its future direction, this article contemplates various perspectives regarding the purpose of legal education, and the pressures that may be brought to bear on pedagogical practices as a result of current and…
Simple Ways to Increase Diversity at the English Bar
Abstract This note sets out simple ways to increase diversity at the English Bar, using the existing setup of the English Bar, but tweaking some small aspects, so without introducing any major structural changes. What this in turn means is that these ways should be easy to implement, given the collective will. The starting point…