BOOK REVIEW
Reinventing Law Practice and
Enhancing Legal Services:
Where Are We Headed?
Reinventing the Practice of Law:
Emerging Models to
Enhance Legal services
by Luz Herrera (editor)
ABA, 2014, 168 pp., $31.46
Reviewed by Margaret Martin Barry, Esq.
Ask just about any person entering law
school what they hope to do with their degree and the answer is: “I want to help people.” They work hard, and, as they move
through their education, the realities of
making a living and paying off student loans
temper initial views of who they will be able
to help. Even for those who are willing to
live near the poverty line on starting public interest salaries, there simply are not
enough jobs that pay students to do this
work.1 Meanwhile, the self-represented litigants who fill courts across the country have
been a cause for increasing concern for the
courts and bar associations.2 Some states
have responded by setting pro bono service requirements for new lawyers; and for
those without the benefit of clinical experience during law school, this can be a new
expense and added time without pay.3
Increasingly, the goal has been to help
law graduates who fall outside of the narrow margin of those working for large firms,
corporations, government, or the public interest sectors, by helping them develop viable solo or small firm practices. This has
certainly been the goal of the Vermont Lawyer Incubator Project.4 The project supports
new lawyers who want to develop solo or
small practices and serve members of the
community with limited ability to access legal services. As one of the incubator administrators, I have been concerned about the
inherent tension our very dedicated new attorneys face between making a living and
providing legal services to those who need
it.
That is why I read Reinventing the Prac44
tice of Law with particular interest. Indeed,
the book’s editor, Luz Herrera, is one of
the leaders in developing incubator programs for recent law school graduates. 5
The book brings together practitioners who
are known as innovators in serving the very
population our Vermont courts and bar worry about. Why do we worry? For one thing,
our professional conduct rules make it our
concern.6 Despite the dedication of many
members of the bar, the seventy-two percent of litigants who represent themselves
on our civil dockets serve as a reminder that
we should remain concerned.7 The important theme of Reinventing the Practice of
Law is that there are ways to link law school
graduates who want to serve those in need
of service with the imperative of earning a
living.
The book is divided into two parts: “Reinventing Lawyering” and “Reinventing Delivery Systems.” Part 1 begins with a discussion by M. Sue Talia about the use of unbundled services as a way to help individuals who cannot pay for full representation.
While most of us think of dividing tasks,
such as document assistance, she also described limiting services to complex or diffic [ \