Washington Weighs Loosening Rules on Who Can Practice Law

The state of Washington wants to run an experiment: Relax restrictions on who can practice law, and measure whether people have an easier time accessing legal services as a result.

Like most states, Washington currently mandates that legal services can only be offered by attorneys, and law firms must be owned by lawyers. Under a pilot proposed by the state’s bar association and law practice board, Washington would ease those restrictions for select entities providing legal services online or through non-traditional business models. It also would collect data to help it decide whether to make the changes permanent.

Washington would ...