The equivalent of a legal TED talk topic: Should non-lawyers be allowed to own law firms?

This is the equivalent of a legal "TED talk" topic: what is the future of the legal profession? Will it stay its same old way, stodgy and traditional, or will it start to change?

It's currently against the rules of professional ethics that govern lawyers for a non-lawyer to own a law firm. Most states also bar law firms and non-lawyers from sharing or splitting fees.

This is starting to change, with some states allowing fee sharing, also known as multidisciplinary practice, but overall, not OK.

However: 

An ABA commission is seeking comments on an “issues paper” examining ethics rules that bar nonlawyers from owning and managing law firms.
The ABA Commission on the Future of Legal Services “revived a contentious debate” on the issue with a request for comments, which are accepted until May 2, according to the ABA BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct.
The commission is asking whether it should make a recommendation to the ABA House of Delegates regarding the ethics rules that bar nonlawyer ownership, according to the article. The ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and ethics rules in most states bar nonlawyer ownership.

Article here (via aba journal). 

Is the study of law worthwhile? Dr. Johnson's opinions

Is the study of law worthwhile?

“The study of law is copious and generous, and in adding your name to its professors you do exactly what I always wished when I wished you best. I hope that you will continue to pursue it vigorously and constantly. You gain, at least, what is no small advantage—security from those troublesome and wearisome discontents who are always obtruding themselves upon a mind vacant, unemployed and undetermined.” [Letter to James Boswell, Aug. 21, 1766.]

Article here (via aba journal). 

New law grads are getting hired, but the competition is stiff

If you're trying to weather the storm of finding a job as a new law school grad, things are looking better. But don't get that new career wardrobe just yet.

Article here. (via wsjlawblog)

The chances of landing a job at a large law firm have improved from the hiring nadir a few years back, when sputtering demand for legal services triggered layoffs and cutbacks.

But the total number of such jobs taken by the class of 2013 remains far lower than for the class of 2009: 3,980 positions compared with 5,156.

How much easier is it for a top-tier law school grad to find work? A lot.

The unemployment rate for graduates from the top 50 law schools in the US is more than 60% lower than the unemployment rate for everybody else, according to a study by the ABA. (article here, via Wall Street Journal law blog).

About 5% of class of 2013 graduates from a top 50 school were still looking for work in February, about nine months after spring 2013 graduation. Meanwhile, 14% of graduates of schools below the top 50 were searching for a job.

Stop all the gloom and doom! Legal market about to boom!

Read Keep Calm and Carry On, 27 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 55 (2014), by Rene ́Reich-Graefe of Western New England University School of Law, who takes on those who forecast a relentlessly negative future for the legal profession:

[R]ecent law school graduates and current and future law students are standing at the threshold of the most robust legal market that ever existed in this country—a legal market which will grow, exist for, and coincide with, their entire professional career.

via State Bar of Michigan blog.