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Bar News - February 18, 2005 Up for Scrutiny: Future of Legal Profession Chief Justice John T. Broderick, at the Midyear Meeting being held this week, will announce the creation of a NH Supreme Court Commission on the Status of the Legal Profession. The group will be co-chaired by retired NH Supreme Court Associate Justice William Batchelder and Franklin Pierce Law Center Dean John D. Hutson. According to a mission statement drafted by the co-chairs, the commission will:
The group's goal will also be to recommend what the legal profession, the courts and others can do to ensure that legal services will be available and affordable and the courts remain accessible to all. "The Court has oversight over the practice of law, and in these times of change, the court needs to know what it can and should do to help keep the profession active and viable," said Batchelder. "How can the legal profession continue to provide the services that the society is looking for?" The two chairs, along with the commission membership as a whole (see list), represent the diversity of the profession today. Batchelder, who retired from the bench in 1995 after 25 years as a judge on the supreme and superior courts, is a widely respected jurist with deep roots in the state. Hutson came toNH as dean of the law school in 2000 after retiring from the US Navy as its chief legal officer. "I have been a lawyer since 1973, and have worked with lawyers from all over the country, so I have a pretty broad perspective on the practice of law in different places," said Hutson. "New Hampshire is one of the nicest, most interesting, and collegial places to practice. Serving on this commission presents a great opportunity to analyze the legal profession here and try to improve it," said Hutson. "How can we preserve its strengths and address its weaknesses?" Hutson and Batchelder said the first organizing meeting of the commission will be held within a few weeks and that they won't have a game plan or structure for their inquiry until they hear from their fellow commission members. The public responsibilities of the legal profession-including the responsibility to help address the problems of those who cannot afford attorneys-will be part of the agenda. Justice Batchelder said that the legal profession has a unique position in society - lawyers in private practice are entrepreneurs who provide professional services to clients and they also are "officers of the court" with responsibilities to the court system and government. Batchelder said the commission also ought to examine the internal aspects of the profession, such as how mentoring is provided, and how professionalism is upheld in the culture of law firms or in communities of practice. Justice Broderick said his motivation for launching the inquiry is not to "criticize" the legal profession but to analyze its current state. He said he is concerned not just about the policy implications of the current state of lawyering, but also with issues of lawyers' personal satisfaction and how lawyers in NH will cope with competitive pressures from outside the state and outside the profession. "In 1972, when I was admitted to the Bar, the largest law firm in the state had 13 lawyers," Broderick said. "In the mid 1970s to 1980s, the question was 'Do we expand to another town? No one was coming in from the outside. Now we have other New England firms moving here, and we have NH firms going elsewhere. The market for legal services is becoming regionalized, it's going national and then global." More important than that, the chief justice added, is that the legal profession, as it currently operates, isn't affordable to the vast majority of citizens. "Law firms that are growing larger are serving 5 percent of the clients-the high end of the market-and, you would think that would leave plenty of room for the small firms and solo lawyers. But too few people can afford what lawyers have to charge nowadays." Broderick said he is interested in finding out from the commission what the court system can do to simplify and speed up legal processes to avoid unnecessary delays that drive up the costs of legal representation. Broderick said he recently spoke with a domestic relations attorney who was expressing concern about the courts' moves in the direction of providing greater assistance to pro se litigants. Broderick said he told the attorney that the answer does not lie in trying to prevent pro se litigants from accessing the courts, but in making court processes easier "so that more people can afford your services." Broderick suggested that the commission might consider whether there are ways that lawyers can do more to share resources and cut down on their business overhead costs so that they can charge clients less and serve more clients and not sacrifice their own livelihoods. "Whatever happens, I can assure you that in 15 years' time, the legal landscape will not look like it does today. It may be almost unrecognizable," Broderick warned. "Whether or not we prepare to meet the future, the future is going to meet us." "Too often in our everyday lives, we let the urgent stand in the way of the important," said Hutson. "This commission will force a group of busy lawyers to take a look at the important, to spend a lot of time thinking and talking about where we are going and where we ought to be going as a profession. I am really looking forward to it." Commission on the Status of the Legal Profession Hon. William F. Batchelder, co-chair |
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