New Mexico will no longer deny licenses to lawyers based on lack of citizenship or based on immigration status

 New Mexico will no longer deny licenses to practice law solely because of an applicant’s citizenship or immigration status, including some aspiring law students who arrived in the U.S. as children and don’t have a clear path to citizenship. Go here for the full story.

Local efforts to address issues related to access to legal services

Yesterday I wrote about the debate at a national level on proposals to change certain aspects of the regulation of the profession.  Today I have news about developments at a local level.

First, there is a Washington D.C. Bar committee press release announcing a review regarding the potential relaxing of that jurisdiction’s non-lawyer law firm ownership rules, including potential fee sharing/splitting.  The January 23, 2020 D.C. Bar press release announcing the review is available here.  For more details go here.

Second, the New Mexico Supreme Court recently endorsed proposals to expand civil legal services in the state, particularly to lower- and middle-income residents and those living in rural areas.  The proposals were based on recommendations from the New Mexico Supreme Court-established Ad Hoc Licensed Legal Technicians Workgroup, which recently released an Innovation to Address the Access to Justice Gap report. For details and links go here.

Comment on Model Rule 8.4(g)

As you probably know, the recently adopted Model Rule 8.4(g) has generated a lot of debate.  Some states have rejected it, a handful have adopted it.  Most have retained similar rules they had adopted before the ABA adopted its Model Rule.  The controversy originates in the fact that the Model Rule may result in the imposition of discipline for protected speech outside the practice of law based on a standard of negligence.

Last month I reported that New Mexico recently adopted the text of the Model Rule.  I am writing again about this today because the blog Louisiana Legal Ethics just published a comment on the developments in New Mexico, and on the ABA Model Rule rule, in which the author concludes that Louisiana should not adopt the Model Rule or adopt a simpler anti-discrimination standard.  The comment is short, but worth reading.  You can find it here.

A quick comment on Indiana's anti-discrimination rule

A blog reader from Indiana wrote to me to tell me that Indiana adopted a version of the proposed Model Rule 8.4(g) before it was adopted by the ABA.  It says that it is misconduct to “engage in conduct, in a professional capacity, manifesting, by words or conduct, bias or prejudice based upon race, gender, religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status, or similar factors. Legitimate advocacy respecting the foregoing factors does not violate this subsection. A trial judge’s finding that preemptory challenges were exercised on a discriminatory basis does not alone establish a violation of this Rule.”

I was not aware of this rule in Indiana and now that I see it, I have a few comments.  First, it explicitly says it regulates speech, which leads me to wonder if it would survive a constitutional attack. In contrast, the Model Rule tries (unsuccessfully, in my view, but at least it tries) to limit its reach to conduct in order to avoid regulating speech.  Second, it limits the rule’s application to conduct “in a professional capacity” but it doesn’t define what it means by “professional capacity.”   Third, the rule does not recognize an exception to allow lawyers to exercise discretion when choosing clients like the Model Rule does.

New Mexico becomes third state to adopt Model Rule 8.4(g)

Long time readers of this blog know that I have been following the developments on Model Rule 8.4(g) way back since it was proposed in 2016.  Go here and scroll down to see my posts, in reverse chronological order.

As you probably remember, Model Rule 8.4(g) has generated a very robust debate, and has proven to be controversial because, at least as originally adopted by the ABA, some argue the rule imposes a threat of discipline for protected speech outside the practice of law based on a standard of negligence.

Since its adoption by the ABA in 2016, nine or ten jurisdictions have rejected adopting the Model Rule while only two have adopted it.  The state that adopted it most recently (Maine) adopted it after making several important amendments.  See here.  Reportedly, Missouri, and Colorado have also amended their rules to reflect some aspect of the Model Rule, but I have not seen the extent of these amendments.

I am writing about this today because I just read a short announcement in Bloomberg Law stating that New Mexico has formally adopted Model Rule 8.4(g).

New Mexico to consider allowing non lawyers to provide some legal services - UPDATED

Long time readers of this blog will remember that in recent years a few states have adopted programs to allow non lawyers to provide limited legal services.  The first was Washington, whose program made the term LLLTs (for limited licence legal technicians) the big debate at the time.  (If you click on the labels Washington and Utah on the right, you can scroll down and find lots of posts on this subject).

Now comes news that the New Mexico Supreme Court recently formed the group – comprised of lawyers, educators and advocates – to look into implementing an LLLT program in the state in order to create changes to court rules and programs that would improve the availability of legal services in the state.   Courthouse News Service has the story.

Update 5/30/10:   Illinois Lawyer Now has a story and links here.