What impact are the twin challenges of globalization and technology having on the ways in which legal services are delivered and regulated? What are the threats? What are the ethical implications, and how is the market for legal services being transformed in the United States and internationally? This Symposium brought together experts in the academy, regulatory and practice environments for a half-day dialogue on issues such as the role of technology and the rise of the "virtual law office;" the competitive challenges to lawyers of alternative providers and client self-help; the constitutional and ethical implications of passive and corporate investment in law firms; and the market for law in the new global economy.
The event, supported by the Sierra Health Foundation, was chaired by Professor Paul D. Paton, Director, Ethics Across the Professions Initiative, University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law.
This program has been approved for Ethics MCLE credit by The State Bar of California for 3.25 hours. Pacific McGeorge School of Law certifies that this activity conforms to the standards for approved educational activities prescribed by the rules and regulations of The State Bar of California governing minimum continuing legal education.
Paul D. Paton, Professor of Law, Director, Ethics Across the Professions Initiative, University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law
Professor Paul Paton had a distinguished career in private practice, corporate counsel and public service settings before joining the academy. Educated at the University of Toronto and the University of Cambridge, he holds master's and doctoral degrees from Stanford Law School. Professor Paton's research focuses on ethics in corporate contexts, legal ethics and lawyer regulation in comparative perspective, and on corporate governance matters. He has been recognized nationally in both the United States and Canada for his contributions to debates on the future of the legal profession and is a frequent media commentator on these issues. He is Chair of the Canadian Bar Association's National Ethics Committee and was appointed as a Reporter to the ABA's Ethics 20/20 Commission in 2011.
Dave Bilinsky, Practice Management Advisor and Staff Lawyer, Law Society of British Columbia (Canada), and Chair, Pacific Legal Technology Conference
David J. Bilinsky is a Practice Management Consultant/Advisor for the Law Society of British Columbia. He is a Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and past Editor-in-Chief of ABA's Law Practice Magazine. He also lecturers at Simon Fraser University teaching a totally online, graduate level course. Dave is the founder and current Chair of the Pacific Legal Technology Conference and a past Co Chair of ABA TECHSHOW. Dave's consulting services focus on enhancing law firm profitability, strategic business planning, change management and the application of technology to the practice of law. Dave has been called uponfrom Shanghai to New York City, from the Yukon to deep in the heart of Argentina by law firms and legal associations to address personal productivity, change management, technology implementation, career satisfaction, leadership development and the emerging discipline: online dispute resolution. Dave is a prolific writer on practice management and writes regularly for many publications in the USA and Canada including being a core contributor to the award-winning blog www.slaw.ca as well as his own blog www.thoughtfullaw.com. His articles have been reprinted across the globe and translated into several languages including French, Mandarin, Spanish and Portuguese.
Michael P. Downey, Partner, Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP and former Chair, Ethics & Technology Committee, ABA Center for Professional Responsibility
Michael Downey is a St. Louis litigator and partner in the national lawyer ethics and risk management practice at Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, where he focuses his law practice on advising law firms and accounting firms regarding legal, ethics, and risk management issues. Mr. Downey has testified as an expert witness, defends lawyers against civil and disciplinary claims, and serves as outside general counsel to law and accounting firms. Mr. Downey also drafted the Missouri Public Service Commission Rules limiting ex parte communications with the Commission. In addition to his ethics law practice, Mr. Downey teaches legal ethics and law firm practice as an adjunct professor at Washington University School of Law and St. Louis University School of Law. A recognized authority on legal ethics and law firm management issues, Mr. Downey is Secretary of the American Bar Association's Law Practice Management Section and chaired the ABA's Ethics & Technology Committee and serves as a liaison to the ABA Ethics 20/20 Commission. He has been widely quoted on legal ethics and law firm practice issues, including appearing on the front page of the New York Times and on NPR's Talk of the Nation to discuss legal ethics and technology. Mr. Downey has presented more than 200 times and published more than 40 articles on legal ethics. Recently he published his first book, Introduction to Law Firm Practice (ABA LPM 2010). Mr. Downey graduated first in his class from Washington University School of Law and earned a graduate certificate in Law Firm Practice from George Washington University. He may be contacted in Hinshaw's St. Louis office at (314) 241-2600.
Gillian Hadfield, Richard L. and Antoinette S. Kirtland Professor of Law and Economics, University of Southern California Gould School of Law
Gillian Hadfield studies the design of legal and dispute resolution systems in advanced and developing market economies; the markets for law, lawyers and dispute resolution; contract law and theory; economic analysis of law; and gender in economics and law. She is the director of the Southern California Innovation Project and co-director of the Center in Law, Economics, and Organization. She teaches Contract Law, Advanced Contracts (Strategic Analysis and Advice), Legal Design, Antitrust and Intellectual Property and Law and Policy of Alternative Dispute Resolution. Her publications include "Higher Demand, Lower Supply: A Comparative Assessment of the Legal Resource Landscape for Ordinary Americans" (Fordham Urban Law Journal, 2010), "The Levers of Legal Design: Institutional Determinants of the Quality of Law" (Journal of Comparative Economics, 2008), "Framing the Choice Between Cash and the Courthouse: Experiences with the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund" (Journal of Law and Society, 2008), "Legal Barriers to Innovation: The Growing Economic Cost of Professional Regulation of Corporate Legal Markets" (Stanford Law Review, 2008); "Delivering Legality on the Internet: Developing Principles for the Privatization of Commercial Law" (American Law and Economics Review, 2004); and "The Price of Law: How the Market for Lawyers Distorts the Justice System" (Michigan Law Review, 2000). Professor Hadfield holds a B.A.H. from Queen's University, a J.D. from Stanford Law School and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University. She served as clerk to Chief Judge Patricia Wald on the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit. She has been a permanent or visiting member of the faculties at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Toronto, New York University Law School, Columbia Law School and Harvard Law School. She is currently a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.
Patrick Hanlon, Lecturer in Residence, Boalt Hall Law School, University of California, Berkeley
Patrick Hanlon is a resident lecturer at Berkeley Law. He joined the Berkeley faculty in 2008 after 30 years of practice in Washington, DC, where he specialized in complex litigation and environmental and toxic tort cases. At Berkeley he teaches professional responsibility and specialized courses in the law of torts. His research interests include the interaction between professional culture, regulation, and technological change and comparative approaches to the regulation of lawyers. He has lectured and published extensively on mass tort litigation and the relationship between the structure of the litigation and the structure(s) of the plaintiffs' bar.
Leslie Gielow Jacobs, Professor of Law, Director, Capital Center for Public Law and Policy, University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law
Professor Leslie Gielow Jacobs is one of the law school's preeminent scholars. A former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., she has authored a substantial and important body of scholarship on constitutional law, specifically free speech and government speech, and on issues of bioterrorism and national security. Her articles have appeared in law journals at many of the nation's most prestigious law schools. She is the Director of the Capital Center for Public Law & Policy.
Stephanie Kimbro, Kimbro Legal Services -- Virtual Law Office
Stephanie Kimbro, MA, JD, has operated a web-based virtual law office in North Carolina since 2006 and delivers estate planning and small-business law to clients online. She is the recipient of the 2009 ABA Keane Award for Excellence in eLawyering and the author of Virtual Law Practice: How to Deliver Legal Services Online, published by the ABA/LPM in October, 2010. She is also the co-founder of Virtual Law Office Technology, LLC (VLOTech), which was acquired by Total Attorneys in the fall of 2009. Kimbro writes about the ethics and technology issues of delivering legal services online and is interested in the use of technology by legal professionals to increase access to justice in our country.
Renee Newman Knake, Assistant Professor of Law, Michigan State University College of Law
Professor Renee Newman Knake received her J.D. from The University of Chicago Law School. Before her academic career, Professor Knake worked as an associate at Mayer, Brown in Chicago, Illinois, and Hunton & Williams in Richmond, Virginia, where she specialized in commercial litigation, telecommunications, and labor/employment law. She also served as Assistant City Attorney for Charlottesville, Virginia. Professor Knake's scholarly interests include intersections between the law of lawyering and constitutional law. Two of her recent publications in this area are Attorney Advice and the First Amendment, forthcoming in the WASHINGTON AND LEE LAW REVIEW, and The Supreme Court's Increased Attention to the Law of Lawyering: Mere Coincidence or Something More?, 59 AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 1499 (2010). She is a regular contributor to the Legal Ethics Forum blog, and she serves on the AALS Executive Committee for the Section on Professional Responsibility.
Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, Dean, University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law
Dean Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker became the eighth Dean in Pacific McGeorge history on July 1, 2002. A noted expert on of national security law and terrorism, Dean Parker served 11 years in key federal government positions, most notably as General Counsel for the National Security Agency, Principal Deputy Legal Adviser, Department of State, and General Counsel for the CIA. In private practice, she has advised clients on public policy and international trade issues, particularly in the areas of encryption and advanced technology.
Chas Rampenthal, Vice President and General Counsel, LegalZoom.com, Inc.
Chas Rampenthal has been LegalZoom's VP and General Counsel since 2003. He has practical experience in law and technology, alternative legal service providers and legal service delivery. At LegalZoom, he oversees product quality, corporate transactions, government relations, legal R&D and public relations. Chas is an active member of the ABA, serving on two committees and the eLawyering Task Force. Prior to joining LegalZoom, he practiced corporate law in Boston and litigation in Los Angeles. Chas received his JD from USC in 1998, and is admitted to practice in California and Massachusetts. Before becoming a lawyer, Chas was a decorated officer and aviator in the United States Navy, serving in Operation Desert Storm.
