I Have Seen the Enemy…: How Attorneys Form the Biggest Access to Justice Barrier, and What To Do About It

Legal professionals have long been aware of the gap between the services available to everyday people and their actual legal needs. Common estimates suggest that somewhere between 70% and 80% of legal needs go unmet. And while attorneys recognize there is a problem, and we have largely accepted our responsibility to address it, what we have failed to recognize is that we (attorneys) form the most significant barrier to bridging the access to justice gap.

Attorneys, often under the guise of protecting the public, consistently choose to stand in the way of innovations designed to meet their needs. We have a responsibility to protect the public. But at what point that that protection become overly paternalistic, to the detriment of the public we serve? How should we balance our (seemingly) competing interests in protecting everyday people in their most vulnerable moments, while providing space for innovative approaches to serving their needs on the other hand? Attorney Zane Johnson, Founder and Managing Attorney of MZA Legal, will answer all these questions and more in this presentation for all attorneys.

Learning Objectives:

1. Examine why closing the access to justice gap is the most important issue in our profession today
2. Analyze how attorneys block innovation
3. Break down how to better balance attorney's interests in protecting the public and encouraging innovation in support of access to justice