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New resources help Washingtonians find free legal assistance for reproductive rights

There is a new website to help healthcare providers, seekers, and helpers get information on pro bono legal assistance to facilitate abortion access, Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced Thursday.

abortiondefensenetwork.org is a legal services website managed by the Lawyering Project.

People looking for help on the website will be connected to attorneys in a nationwide pro bono network to provide free legal guidance and resources. This includes several Washington law firms recruited by the Attorney General’s Office.

Advocacy organizations have also partnered with law firms and the Attorney General’s Office to connect people to important services. the ACLU of Washington, LegalVoiceand If/When/How provided training to Washington attorneys.

“Radical laws in other states are creating chaos for providers, out-of-state patients, and individuals assisting their friends and families to access health care,” Ferguson said. “The changing legal landscape is causing providers and others to question whether they face legal jeopardy by helping someone come to Washington for legal abortion care. This resource will help them navigate these important issues and protect their freedoms.”

Ferguson has also produced a “know your rights” flyers. The brochure outlines Washington laws to protect abortion and contraception access. It also gives options for insurance coverage for abortion care.

Along with the brochure, Ferguson created a specific form for Washingtonians to file complaints on violations of their reproductive rights. Anyone with complaints or concerns about violations of reproductive rights under state law is encouraged to fill out the form.

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March 2, 2023 by LEGAL

Trump leadership PAC spent more than $16 million on legal services in 2022



CNN
—

Donald Trump’s PAC leadership spent more than $16 million on legal services in 2022, according to a tally of the Save America PAC distributions through the end of December. The number represents a massive set of bills from lawyers at a time when the former president faces trump-investigations-lawsuits/index.html”multiple criminal inquiries, lawsuits and other challenges.

The money appears to be largely geared toward firms representing Trump and his business and family interests. The disbursement shows that Save America PAC paid more than $12.5 million to 16 law firms that have aided in his representation, either in the criminal matters or other legal disputes, according to CNN’s review of the data and additional reporting. Some of those law firms also represent others who’ve been sought out as subjects in the inquiries around Trump.

The firm of a Trump defense attorney, Alina Habbatook in nearly $2 million from Save America in 2022. Habba Madaio & Associates has represented him opposite a New York State attorney general probe and in other lawsuits.

Another firm, van der Veen, Hartshorn and Levin, which has lawyers who represented Trump in his 2021 impeachment proceedings and also represented a Trump Organization entity in New York, was paid $1.4 million, according to federal election records. And the two law firms of Trump’s primary criminal defense attorneys, Evan Corcoran and James Trusty, were each paid $1.2 million, Save America PAC reported.

Some law firms receiving Save America’s payments represent close contacts of Trump’s, such as McGuireWoods, which represents his former chief of staff Mark Meadows.

The large law firms McGuireWoods and Squire Patton Boggs, which represented former Trump White House speechwriter staffers, received almost $900,000 and $250,000, respectively, while several smaller law firms that represented key witnesses in ongoing investigations received payments into the

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February 22, 2023 by LEGAL

Alternative legal services providers growth is dramatically accelerating, making up $20 billion of the legal market

  • Technology consulting is one of the fastest-growing use cases
  • Law firm captives are the fastest-growing segment, Big Four are the slowest-growing

Thomson Reuters, January 31, 2023, TORONTO – Alternative legal services providers (ALSPs) now make up a $20.6 billion segment of the legal market and growth is accelerating dramatically, according to the Alternative Legal Services Providers 2023 Report. The report is issued biennially by the Thomson Reuters Institute; the Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession at Georgetown Law; and the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

ALSPs experienced a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20% from 2019-2021, a significant jump from the 15% CAGR from 2017-2019.

The report states that ALSPs are finding new ways to serve both law firms and corporate legal departments, and the boundaries between all three are becoming increasingly blurred. Independent ALSPs are the largest segment, making up 87% of the ALSP market. While captive ALSPs owned by law firms are the smallest part of the market, they are also the fastest-growing – up nearly six-fold since 2015. ALSP services from the Big Four consulting firms account for $1.5 billion of the market, growing at 5 %CAGR.

“Both law firms and in-house counsel are increasingly seeing the value of alternative legal service providers,” said James W. Jones, a senior fellow at the Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession at Georgetown Law. “Meanwhile, ALSPs are expanding the services they offer to law firms and legal departments by providing specialized services, improving cost efficiency, and delivering greater flexibility in headcount.”

More Growth Ahead

A growing percentage of law firms of all sizes expect to either maintain or increase their ALSP spend. Among the largest law firms, 26% plan to increase spending on ALSPs, while only 3% forees decrease use.

For corporate legal departments,

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February 10, 2023 by LEGAL

The market for alternative legal services is growing dramatically, new report shows

In our biennial report on the ALSP market, we find a sector that has grown exponentially over the past two years and is making great in-roads with both law firms and corporations

The market for alternative legal services providers (ALSPs) is showing itself to be a highly dynamic part of the overall legal ecosystem and one that is growing at an increasing rate as it forges new paths to serving both traditional law firms and corporate law departments.

Indeed, ALSPs now comprise a $20.6 billion segment of the legal market, according to the Alternative Legal Services Providers 2023 Reportpublished today by the Thomson Reuters Institute, the Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession at Georgetown Law, and the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford.

The biennial report shows that ALSPs experienced a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20% from 2019 to 2021, a significant jump from the 15% CAGR recorded between 2017 and 2019. Overall, it reveals an evolving legal market in which the boundaries between alternative legal service providers, law firms, corporate law departments, and even technology and software firms are rapidly blurring.

“Both law firms and in-house counsel are increasingly seeing the value of alternative legal service providers,” said James W. Jones, a senior fellow at the Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession at Georgetown Law and the report’s lead author. “Meanwhile, ALSPs are expanding the services they offer to law firms and corporate law departments by providing specialized services, improving cost efficiency, and delivering greater flexibility in headcount.”

A dynamic market

While independent ALSPs are the largest segment of the market, representing 87% of all ALSP revenue, captive ALSPs — those owned by law firms — are a smaller segment, but it’s also the fastest-growing, posting a six-fold increase since

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February 9, 2023 by LEGAL

Alternative legal services market hits $20.6 billion – report

(Reuters) – As the market for alternative legal services continues to grow, providers owned by traditional law firms remain the fastest-growing segment, according to a new report released Tuesday.

The total market reached $20.6 billion by the end of the 2021 fiscal year, up 45% from two years prior, according to the biennial report by the Thomson Reuters Institute, the Center of Ethics and the Legal Profession at Georgetown Law and the Saïd Business School of the University of Oxford.

The report on alternative legal services providers (ALSPs) includes independent companies, the Big Four professional services firms and ventures created within law firms — so-called “captive” providers.

Law firm captives make up the smallest part of the ALSP market with about $1 billion in revenues, compared to independent providers which generate about $18 billion and the Big Four which have reached $1.5 billion, the report said.

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But as the fastest-growing segment, the captives, which include firm business units, technology incubators and firm-owned independent providers, have grown 117% since 2019 and 589% since 2015.

Large law firms including Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Norton Rose Fulbright have recently created new alternative legal ventures.

The report said the ALSP market has hit new heights as law firms and corporate legal departments continue to expand their use.

“ALSPs are expanding the services they offer to law firms and legal departments by providing specialized services, improving cost efficiency, and delivering greater flexibility in headcount,” James Jones, a senior fellow at the Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession at Georgetown Law, said in a statement.

The report is based on a survey of about 650 respondents from law firms and corporate legal departments based in the US, UK, Canada, EU and Australia. The Thomson Reuters Institute is

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February 5, 2023 by LEGAL

Legal aid, free advice and virtue signaling | Featured

Under the Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949, 80% of the population of England and Wales became eligible for legal aid which was administered by the Law Society and applied to those of ‘small or moderate means’.

Matthew Shankland

Chloe O'Brien

Since then, successive cuts to legal aid by various governments have significantly reduced its scope, eligibility criteria and payments. The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 removed legal aid provisions for most areas of civil law including family, employment, welfare benefits, immigration and housing law.

Cuts to legal aid fees for lawyers have resulted in solicitors and barristers leaving certain practice areas or not going into them in the first place. In such circumstances, even if someone is eligible for legal aid, there may not be a lawyer to provide the service.

Pro bono legal work has been an integral part of the profession since medieval times. Today, most regional, City and international law firms have established sophisticated pro bono practices alongside their fee-earning work.

Contrary to what some believe, it is not simply a box-ticking exercise. Specialist pro bono programs are run by dedicated, full-time pro bono professionals who work closely with senior leadership and community organizations to channel the skills of lawyers effectively towards helping those who need it most. Training in relevant areas of law (secondary specializations) or partnering with established practitioners is key to their success.

A central rule of true pro bono programs is that work should not be done pro bono if it is covered by legal aid. Pro bono programs may complement the legal aid system, but an important feature is that the work was never intended to be paid for in the first place. This can be contrasted with the unfair situation in which many legal aid lawyers find themselves –

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January 16, 2023 by LEGAL

O’Melveny adds bank regulatory lawyer from WilmerHale in DC

(Reuters) – Continuing a recent focus on financial industry regulatory hires, Los Angeles-founded O’Melveny & Myers said Tuesday that it has added a banking regulatory lawyer from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr as a partner in Washington, DC

Jarryd Anderson joined O’Melveny two months after it was hired anti-money laundering and financial technology specialist AnnaLou Tirolin Washington from the US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), where she was deputy director.

The firm also added a former federal financial crimes prosecutor, Rebecca Mermelstein, as a partner in New York this month from the Manhattan US attorney’s office.

O’Melveny chair Bradley Butwin said in a statement that regulatory scrutiny is growing as innovation in the financial services sector surges.

“The Fed is focusing on central bank digital currencies, stablecoins and digital asset activity, so I think that’s a trend that’ll be very important to a lot of our fintech clients,” Anderson said.

Before moving into private practice, Anderson worked in-house at financial institutions including Wells Fargo & Co, where he was a vice president and senior counsel.

Earlier he was a policy advisor for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve system and helped develop and implement the Dodd-Frank Act.

A representative from WilmerHale did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Anderson’s departure.

Read more:

O’Melveny adds ex-federal NY prosecutor, continuing white collar buildout

Ex-FinCEN official joins O’Melveny as law firms bulk up white-collar groups

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Chinekwu Osakwe

Thomson Reuters

Chinekwu Osakwe covers legal industry news with a focus on midsize law firms. Reach her at [email protected].

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November 10, 2022 by LAW

Shearman & Sterling debuts legal operations unit as law firms expand client offerings

  • New York firm creates new offering marketed as Legal Operations by Shearman
  • Shearman joins firms looking to get creative in services for companies

(Reuters) – Shearman & Sterling said Wednesday it has set up a new service to help corporate law department clients address legal operations challenges, becoming the latest law firm to diversify beyond traditional legal work.

The New York-founded firm is drawing from existing internal teams for the new service, which is being marketed as Legal Operations by Shearman. Shearman said the unit will provide knowledge management, legal technology, business intelligence and other services.

Law firms are increasing creating new subsidiaries and internal units that focus on areas such as technology, consulting and legal staffing for corporate clients, in part to differentiate their services and compete with alternative legal services providers.

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Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton launched a technology-driven business unit for transactional work in June. Such ventures still appear to be rare among Wall Street firms, but a growing number of other large US and international law firms are investing in the concept.

While 850-lawyer Shearman had already provided aspects of its new service to clients, it is expanding and formalizing the offering to meet growing operational needs for legal departments of all sizes, said Anthony Widdop, Shearman’s global director of legal operations.

Many clients are “quite early in their legal operations journey,” Widdop said, and the firm’s focus is to give strategic advice to companies either setting up or reshaping a legal operations function.

The goal isn’t to provide “low-cost or commodity work,” he said.

Shearman has internally piloted the offering since January, Widdop said. So far, the firm has worked to shape knowledge management strategy for a “major energy client” shaking up

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October 15, 2022 by LEGAL

Program of free legal services to journalists expands nationwide

One consequence of the local journalism crisis is the loss of legal support available to reporters and news outlets.

Hiring lawyers to review major investigative stories before publication or help secure public records used to be common at regional outlets.

Now it’s a rarity as nearly every local newspaper struggles to cover costs, upgrade for digital competition and retain what’s left of their gutted newsrooms.

That further reduces the amount of government transparency and hard-hitting accountability journalism.

So it’s especially welcome to see a program providing free legal services to journalists expand from a pilot project in Washington and California to a national service.

Attorneys at Microsoft and Seattle-based law firm Davis Wright Tremaine started this in 2020.

They work together providing pro-bono legal services to local journalists at all types of outlets. As of May 2022, the program provided about 386 hours of services worth $240,000, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a nonprofit that’s now coordinating the program.

This week, the Knight Foundation announced a $1.3 million grant over three years to expand the program, called ProJourn.

“ProJourn empowers local journalists and journalism organizations by providing accessible legal assistance to carry out their work effectively,” foundation CEO Alberto Ibargüen said in the announcement. “The law can be a weapon and a shield; journalists need both in a healthy democracy.”

A bevy of white shoe law firms are also joining the program, including BakerHostetler, Covington & Burling, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Kilpatrick Townsend and McGuireWoods.

In turn, the firms will work with their corporate clients’ in-house lawyers to provide pro-bono service to local journalists, following the model of DWT and Microsoft.

Full disclosure: DWT has long represented The Seattle Times and Microsoft supports several of its journalism initiatives, but neither pitched this

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October 7, 2022 by LEGAL

Legal Services that Place People at the Forefront
cervantes_quote

Cervantes Abogadosis one of Mexico’s most prestigious law firms. Set up more than two decades ago, this multi-service law firm has made itself known in the Mexican and international legal market for its personalized, effective, and high-impact legal services.

Luis A. Cervantes Muñiz, a law professor for over forty years, is the founding partner of Cervantes Abogados. He has dedicated his life to understanding the law and all of its complexities, ensuring he stays up to date with the latest practices. His passion for the law is evident.

Cervantes Abogados’ greatest asset is their team, all of whom show the same dedication to the law as Mr. Cervantes. The team is composed of individuals who demonstrate passion for the practice of law and true loyalty, giving them qualities beyond just their high standard of academic preparation.

Building a team around these principles ensures that they are all committed to providing the best legal services to their clients. The relationships fostered between the firm and its clients are a large part of the success it has enjoyed. Cervantes thinks of its clients as partners with whom they share a vested interest. They are notorious for fighting their clients’ corners to the best of their abilities,”being creative and doing whatever we must do – within the law – to achieve the results.“

The philosophy is simple, to attract potential clients by adding value to their businesses.

“We believe in going the extra mile, we believe in making an extra effort, we believe in adding value. My philosophy has always been that I must be attractive to the client; I need to add value to their business.”

cervantes-main2.jpg?w=790&f=f727f1ef3ba938593393f8e190c5ff33″ alt=”cervantes_main2″ width=”790″ height=”527″/
Photo Credit By: Cervantes Abogados

Cervantes prides itself on always going the extra mile

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October 2, 2022 by LEGAL
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