Oregon Fellows Virtual Event

This event is free to registerees. 

Join us after the presentation as we welcome new Fellows!

Featured Keynote: “Alternative Legal Professionals and Access to Justice: Failures, Successes, and an Evolving Innovation” with Stephen Daniels (ABF Research Professor)

Access to justice is an endemic problem and the traditional solutions have long shown themselves to be inadequate. As the 2017 Oregon State Bar Futures Task Force said, “Despite more than two decades of efforts to encourage pro bono and unbundled legal services, the problem has grown.” This underscores the need to think boldly about potential “innovations” for attacking the problem. An idea once anathema (even odious) to the legal profession is gaining traction (mostly in western states, Oregon among them) –trained, licensed non-lawyers authorized to perform “substantive law-related work” without an attorney’s supervision. Boldness, however, doesn’t assure success. Pursuing this innovation necessarily involves a leap of faith; but if states are seen as laboratories for innovation, then tracking and analyzing the evolution of this bold idea in different states will provide insights into its future, shape, and workability. Despite the demise of the Washington State LLLT program, the innovation itself has taken on a life of its own and is evolving – perhaps in unforeseen ways.