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TRUANCY INTERVENTION PROJECT
A NEW WAY OF DOING THINGS:
PART 1 OF 2
25TH ANNIVERSARY OF TIP
By J. Wickliffe Cauthorn
Cauthorn Nohr & Owen
[email protected]
By Jessica Pinson Pennington
Executive Director, TIP
A
t the time of its launch in October 1991, the Truancy
Intervention Project (TIP) Georgia was a noble idea
conceived in partnership between the Atlanta Bar
Association and the Fulton County Juvenile Court
to introduce volunteer attorneys into the lives of troubled kids.
delving into issues beyond the typical truant student. Plans for
the future include embarking on efforts targeting harsh school
discipline practices, chronic health issues that keep children
out of school and the trauma and resulting mental health
concerns of many TIP families among other emerging issues.
That noble idea has blossomed into a much lauded and
replicated program, serving almost 10,000 children and withstanding the test of time.
So join TIP throughout 2016! Some of its fondest memories
and incredible success stories will be shared and TIP is even
planning a party or two. Ple ase follow TIP on Facebook and
look for regular updates and event announcements via the
website as they celebrate 25 amazing years of keeping kids
in school! ■
The year ahead holds an opportunity to reflect on TIP’s success and to look ahead to its important future in the advocacy
of Atlanta’s children. As an agency, TIP is considering the
myriad factors affecting children’s attendance patterns and
L
Last year I wrote a column
about market disruption and
the possibility of someone
coming along with a disruptive
idea for the delivery of legal services. I
cited studies showing an unserved legal market of $20 billion. This month,
I make an argument for changing the
structure with regard to regulation and
service delivery in the legal market.
How does our regulatory system
stymie creativity? It requires independent wealth or accumulation of
debt in order to start a business.
If a lawyer wants to start her own firm,
she must either have money or borrow money. She cannot take her talent and experience and business idea
and try to raise money. She cannot
build a business by leveraging equity.
We are part of a guild. The Bar is an association of skilled practitioners that regulates itself and protects itself from outside
competition. In Georgia, we protect the
consumer and our own economic interests by requiring two barriers of entry:
graduation from law school and bar exam
passage. You cannot practice law until
you have shown your proficiency to the
guild itself by passing an examination written and graded by members of the guild.
Although law school has replaced
an apprenticeship and the bar exam
is now standardized instead of local, we still have a centuries old
guild-system in which we function.
For centuries, the guild has been protected from outside participation in profit
sharing—a lawyer can only share her
profits with other lawyers. If you want
to start a firm, then debt accumulation
or depletion of your own wealth is your
only option. If a young lawyer has a good
idea, the only option is to find an old lawyer to partner with that can finance the
business. Law is a field in which a young
person with new ideas need not apply,
and that shouldn’t be the case because,
over time it will lead to a self-selected
type of non-entrepreneurial people.
We are a very old profession, and that is
something to be proud of; unfortunately,
though, our traditions stymie creativity and limit the services we are able to
provide to our customers—legal services
consumers looking for the best product
at the best price. Our system also lumps
elected officials, public employees, and
private employees under the same regulatory umbrella (see my next column).
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April 2016
Why does it make sense to allow non-lawyers to own equity positions in law firms?
1. As mentioned before, it encourages and
enables lawyers to start legal services businesses without risking their life savings.
2. It brings a larger group of minds together to focus on a business. A nonlawyer who has not been subject to the
years of indoctrination brings a fresh set
of eyes to the business, may see gaps
in the market and recognize ways to
fill those gaps with legal services, and
3.The guild will still protect itself
because a lawyer will still be required to render legal services.
Why not? Walmart lawyers. So what, really? So there are more legal jobs for the
thousands of under-employed lawyers
scraping to get by AND a larger portion
of the population has access to legal
services? That sounds fine to me. I think
it is self-aggrandizing to pretend that we
are too good for Walmart. Problems of
privilege and conflict of interest? My idea
is not to encourage larger companies to
provide services in the traditional way. I
believe giving lawyers access to equity
funding would allow those talented and
creative “idea-men” and “idea-women”
to continue practicing law while coming up with new ways to provide legal
services. The creativity is in the workaround—what are the barriers? How can
we accomplish our goals within these
parameters?
Years ago, advertising was verboten.
Now, begrudgingly, our profession is accepting advertising as a necessary part
of the modern world and the way that you
reach out to consumers. Because something has always been done a certain way
is no reason to keep doing it that way. A
young lawyer should be allowed to leverage their talent and leverage their ideas.
Why should we discourage entrepreneurship in our field? Change is inevitable, and
now is time to welcome it into the Bar. ■
The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association THE ATLANTA LAWYER
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