Originally published on August 18, 2008 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.
I've been thinking about what to write this month. I could cover the proliferation of location-based networks (Brightkite, Loopt), or the surge of applications simultaneously living on the desktop and in the browser (Twhirl, TweetDeck). And of course, there's the iPhone 3G, which has helped liberate social networks and become an important new platform for application development.
But not every development in recent weeks occurred online.
This summer marked the first time in five years that I would not serve as chair of the practice management committee at the DuPage County Bar Association. To commemorate the event, I had a dustup last week with the new chair, a nice enough guy who politely warned me to stay the hell out of his way.
I guess now that I'd built up the committee and nearly sacrificed my practice and marriage in the process, it was time for someone else to take over. I was always the loudmouth kid at the bar association's grown-ups table. Now I was old news — look for me on the next episode of Where Are They Now? after the segment on Mindy Cohn.
Which got me thinking.
Bar associations will always be social clubs. They never have, and never will, give up their secrets or focus on merit, innovation, or transparency. That would undermine their power base, their cash flow, and the reason for their existence, which is to legitimize their members. Think about it — bar associations exist to congratulate their members for being ... part of the bar association.
It's a brilliant system, and like the profession itself it thrives on being exclusive and mysterious, but most of all it suppresses dissent or disruptive ideas. After all, if lawyers could form working groups, share information with the public, trade experiences with each other, or collaborate to save time and money without the need for bar associations, there would be no need for ... bar associations.
Could small firms and sole practitioners band together to mount a united, realistic threat to big law supremacy? With the advent of online tools, mobile devices, and cheap hardware, this scenario could occur in the right environment.
To get from here to there, I present this modest proposal for small firm lawyers — let's apply a sliver of our collective intelligence, numbers, vision, and money to secure a brighter future. Thus, let's:
1. Disband state and county bar associations.
2. Eliminate state-based regulation of lawyers.
3. Adopt a nationwide civil-law-style system.
4. Abolish state bar exams in favor of a national one.
5. Measure and regulate bar passage by population.
6. Mandate apprenticeships, public service, and CLE.
7. Mandate periodic retesting of lawyers.
8. Require LexisNexis and Westlaw to provide free legal research.
It's not a perfect proposal, but I'm working on it. You got a better one? Where's Jonathan Swift when you need him?
Written by Mazyar M. Hedayat of M. Hedayat & Associates, P.C.
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