Mountain & Western States Fellows Virtual Event

This event is free to registerees. 

Featured Keynote: “Access to Justice Way Out West: The Uncertain Fate of a Potential Innovation” with Stephen Daniels (ABF Senior Research Professor)

Innovations addressing a widening justice gap once anathema (even odious) to the legal profession are gaining traction. Washington State’s Limited Licensed Legal Practitioner program, an access-enhancing experiment, is the first licensed professional authorized to perform “substantive law-related work” without an attorney’s supervision. To be considered an innovation, others must find this experiment useful and adopt it, which some Western states are considering. Early research finds each state’s consideration to be a pragmatic vetting process probing the depths of the justice gap and the varied virtues and vices of this experiment. The results can be perplexing, but nonetheless point to what might shape the fate of Limited Licensed Legal Practitioner program.