Given the slow pace of change to the structure of the legal profession so far, it was good to see the Canadian Bar Association take the issue on with the release of a discussion paper as part of its CBA Legal Futures Initiative last week.
Over the coming months, the CBA will consult with the profession on issues ranging from alternative business structures to ethics and regulatory issues and the education of lawyers.
The goal is to help the profession change in the face of trends such as globalization, technological advances, liberalization of markets, deregulation, and challenging economic conditions. The CBA’s work is necessary given what it identifies as the profession’s conservative tendencies.
“Because of its relative success in the past, the legal profession in Canada is generally conservative,” the discussion paper released last week states. “Psychological studies of lawyers have found that they are generally skeptical, autonomous, and not resilient.”
As a result, the profession here has lagged behind other jurisdictions that have allowed for reforms such as non-lawyer ownership of law firms. In the meantime, it faces significant pressures, including the fact that the number of lawyers is increasing faster than the general population.
The added supply of lawyers would normally be good when it comes to access to legal services, but as the discussion paper notes, many potential clients are turning away from the profession due to cost.
A key theme of the discussion paper, then, is the need to look at how lawyers and law firms do business to address those cost pressures and what it calls the latent market for legal services.
As such, Fred Headon, CBA vice president and chairman of the Legal Futures Initiative steering committee, is predicting big changes. “We’re actively exploring alternative business structures,” he says. “I’ll boldly predict they’re coming.”
In addition, he notes clients want greater involvement in their legal matters with a view to having greater cost predictability and a consideration of cheaper alternatives.
The issues present a big challenge to lawyers faced with a high cost of doing business. Inevitably, the changes would mean significant disruption with some people coming out on the losing end.
Nevertheless, Headon insists a bright future lies ahead. “We think there are some great opportunities
for the legal profession in all of this,” he says.
That may be a bit optimistic and the profession is probably late in tackling the issues, but it’s good to see the CBA taking them on. Of course, as Headon points out, the profession doesn’t really have a choice.
“I think it’s going to mean a very big change in how we do the work. The risk is to those who don’t recognize that.”
