The New Jersey State Bar Association has long opposed the trend of non-lawyers providing legal services. This ongoing, troubling practice seen in some parts of the nation threatens to undermine the autonomy attorneys have in practicing law.
To make matters worse, the idea of law firms being run by financial institutions—hedge funds, large accounting firms, and private equity ventures—inches closer to reality each year. The result is a profit-driven practice of law—a legal system where lawyers are forced to place the interests of their corporate owners over advocacy and care for their clients.
Taken together, these two threats would undermine the sacred role of lawyers playing as officers of the court, operating under strict ethical guidelines and free of influence from corporate overlords or earnings.
The bottom line is this: only lawyers should perform the work of lawyers. Any alternative would do the public and our system of justice a grave disservice.
ABA Rules 5.4
The American Bar Association took the critical step this summer to renew its longstanding rule that prohibits lawyers from partnering with those not licensed to practice law. Rules 5.4 blocks non-lawyers from having a financial stake in a lawyer’s profits and influencing them to prioritize corporate goals and earnings over the duty they owe to clients.
Lawyers, trained in the law and bound by ethical constraints designed to protect the public, should provide legal services, not corporations or hedge funds, the rule affirms.
Though Rule 5.4 has been adopted in some form by most states, Arizona and Utah have worked around the guideline in the name of promoting access to justice for low-income clients. Arizona abolished Rule 5.4 in 2020 to license 25 non-lawyer entities that offer services in business law, taxes, and estate planning.
Meanwhile, Utah has allowed non-lawyer investors and managers