Nobody likes a lawyer until they need one By Michael Rappaport "Nobody likes a lawyer until they need one" goes to the old adage. Public opinion studies on the legal profession support this view. A 2006 Harris poll found that only 18 per cent of Americans trust lawyers completely. Closer to home, a 2004 Leger poll found that only 44 per cent of Canadians trust lawyers. Yet, despite the public's general lack of trust in
MoreUnbundling and the self-represented litigant By Michael Rappaport I was sceptical when I first began to volunteer for Law Help Ontario's self-help centre in Ottawa last spring. The centre, housed on the fifth floor of the Superior Court House on Elgin Street, is a walk-in clinic where unrepresented litigants in civil actions can get advice from pro bono duty counsel on a first come, first served basis. How much help could I possibly be to
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The end of lawyers? Richard Susskind's vision of the future of legal practice By Michael Rappaport Can you imagine a world without lawyers? When Lionel Hutz, the Simpsons' shyster attorney on the long-running animated series contemplated this possibility, it brought a chilling apparition to his mind of people of all nationalities holding hands and dancing around in a circle under a rainbow. Legal technology guru Richard Susskind's vision of the future of the legal profession
MoreDon't kill billing by the hour, cap it instead By Michael Rappaport Daggers are drawn, blades pointed at the billable hour, fingered as the culprit for all the ills that afflict the legal profession by its legions of critics. "Kill the billable hour," exhorted Evan Chesler, presiding partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, in Forbes earlier this year, while touting his white-shoe law firm for implementing flat fees for handling transactions and success fees for
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