ANALYSIS: Nonlawyer Ownership Faces Uphill Climb in Legal Market

The momentum to advance nonlawyer involvement in the legal market has stalled, and it’s unlikely to pick up the pace into 2023. Instead, any changes in the year to come will likely be in the form of limited advances, similar to those that have occurred in the past year.  

This isn’t where we expected to be two years ago, when several state bar developments pointed to imminent watershed changes to the regulatory restrictions on nonlawyer involvement. These advances include Arizona’s elimination of its version of Model Rule 5.4 and creation of a certification regime for entities with nonlawyer owners ...