Reclaiming the Role of Lawyers as Community Connectors

Authors

David F. Levi, Duke Law SchoolFollow
Dana Remus
Abigail Frisch

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2019

Abstract

With the prospect of nonlawyers stepping in to do low-fee legal work, how should the legal profession conceive of its relationship to that work and ensure that nonlawyers bolster rather than undermine the value that lawyers add to society? Lawyers should reclaim their role as connectors in their communities: interstitial figures with the knowledge, skill, and trust to help resolve disputes, move beyond stalemates, dispel tensions, and otherwise bring people and resources together in productive solutions. They should do so, at least in part, through pro bono work for poor and low-income clients. It would be a mistake to stand in the way of innovative solutions to the justice gap. But it would also be a mistake, and a deep loss, if lawyers–particularly those who do not normally represent poor and low-income clients– turned their backs on the poor and low-income segments of our society.

Citation

David F. Levi et al., Reclaiming the Role of Lawyers as Community Connectors, 148 Dædalus 30-36 (2019)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.