CBA Record November-December 2023

#3 Access to Justice and the Future of the Legal Profession (January 2016) One of my first Bobservations in Janu ary 2016 was driven by a coincidental set of readings during the preceding holiday season spurred thoughts about the future of our profession in the age of fast-evolv ing self-help technologies. It got a lot of reaction then, and almost eight years later, this one still holds up well today as technology-based options are accelerating even more rapidly. This one strikes me as far more prescient than I could have imagined at the time. #2 How did Legal Services Get So Unaffordable, and What are We Going to Do About It? (July 2022) Once upon a time not long ago in our country, everyday people generally could find and afford legal services when they encountered a legal issue. Not so today. How and why did this happen, and what can we do about it? I took a deeper dive into those issues. Whether you agree or disagree with my diagnosis, this is an issue we all need to prioritize and tackle in the work to improve access to justice. #1 A New Year’s Resolution for Our Profession: Stop Calling People Nonlawyers (December 2016) My first New Year’s Resolution for the legal profession as we were heading into 2017 remains by far the most popular: Stop calling people nonlawyers! It is one of our profession’s worst habits, and a lazy one at that. Not only do

That was the introduction to the origi nal “top 10” Bobservation format. Sadly, this is another post that remains equally relevant more than five years later. #5 Uber, Taxis, and the Legal Market (March 2019) Take a trip down bad memory lane to about 10 years ago when you needed to get a cab but were not in a place where taxis tend to be plentiful on the street. Remember what that was like? Hold that thought for a moment, and now think of what it is like today for someone who is looking for a lawyer and doesn’t know where to turn. While it is sure to get most lawyers upset to be com pared to the taxi industry, the similarities in these two market failures are striking. We can write a different script for what happens in the legal market but need to start now. That was the introduction to this post over four years ago, and the analogy is only looking more on point since then. #4 A Banned Words List for Access to Justice (April 2018 original version, September 2021 v. 2.0) This one really struck a chord, so much so that I added a version 2.0 three years later. It is a hit list of commonly used words in access to justice spaces that should be put out to pasture. Just a few of the phrases that should be retired in this context are “low bono,” “legal services,” and acronyms that are meaningless or confusing for people who don’t do this work every day.

we minimize the many other profession als who play integral parts in the court system and any successful law practice when using this unfortunate language, but we also unnecessarily make it harder for the other client-facing advocates and responders to deliver justice. Calling people by who they are not (and too often then treating them accord ingly) violates just about every principle of inclusion and does us no favors as lawyers. Thankfully are more green shoots today, as more and more voices make similar points and are modeling better behavior in their actions. The Next 100 Thanks to the countless friends, col leagues, and partners who have inspired so many of these posts over the years, and to all of you for reading some or all of them. A special thanks to my colleagues at the CBF who have provided feedback, suggestions, and many helpful edits. There is a lot more we still can and need to do to bring our profession and justice system closer to our ideals. So, I’ll keep writing these. And thanks again for coming along for the ride.

An archive of Bobser vations is available at chicagobarfoundation. org/bobservations. Bob Glaves is the Executive Director of The Chicago Bar Foundation

Learn more about The Chicago Bar Foundation and the services and awards it provides at www.chicagobarfoundation.org

Did You Know? In 1985, the Board of Managers approved the formation of a CBA Chamber Music group, which has since become The Chicago Bar Association’s Symphony Orchestra (CBASO). The CBA’s Barristers Big Band was founded in 2000 and the CBA Chorus in 2006.

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