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Some promising A2J news from the Hoosier state.

Folks, this update requires a bit of context.

As regular LE readers know, back in 2022, the content of Legal Evolution began to shift as I wrote a series of essays seeking out the root causes of our present-day social, political, and economic strife. See Posts 312 (original Gilded Age lawyers), 319 (US policies leading to wealth inequality and the “End of History” illusion), 321 (empirically based theories of national decline). As a law professor who teaches the ABA-required legal ethics course, I found this subject matter impossible to avoid. Cf. ABA Preamble ¶ 6 (“[A] lawyer should cultivate knowledge of the law beyond its use for clients [and use it to] … further the public’s understanding of and confidence in the rule of law … because legal institutions in a constitutional democracy depend on popular participation and support to maintain their authority.”).Continue Reading Update on A2J in Indiana, including work being done at IU Maurer Law (357)

Source: The Commons Law Center

Sliding scale “low bono” legal services powered by a legal operations toolbox.

When it comes to legal representation, many people are at risk of slipping through the gap. The modest means gap, that is.

The modest means gap is an often-overlooked subsection of the population whose income is too high to qualify them for some pro bono services but too low to generally afford legal representation at full price.

The Commons Law Center, or simply the Commons, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit law firm that’s specifically designed to close this gap.  As discussed in greater detail below, what makes the Commons worthy of a case study is an innovative business model that generates earned revenue from paying clients while simultaneously minimizing costs and maximizing access and impact through a tightly controlled menu of unbundled legal services.  The result is a mission-driven law firm in the A2J PeopleLaw space that has the potential to fund its own future growth.
Continue Reading The Commons Law Center: A unique and promising business model for PeopleLaw (311)