Mr. Hughes, as founder of Legal Grind, Coffee & Counsel, was a keynote speaker at a the 2000 Unbundled law conference, held in Baltimore Maryland. Over 255 lawyers, judges, "dot.com" legal entrepreneurs, mediators and law school clinicians (from 34 states, DC, Canada, and Russia) gathered for the national conference on "Unbundled Legal Services" in October 2000. The excitement derived from explorations of new formulations of existing legal practice and of entirely new ways to open the system to the public. At the conference we examined a new wave of experimentation in the legal field, much of it driven by changes in information technology and consumer demands and preferences for problem solving. The challenge derived from the re-thinking required by the entire legal system and the potential for positive change. For more information please visit http://www.unbundledlaw.org

The ABA (American Bar Association) Standing committee on the Delivery of Legal Services, the same committee that selected Legal Grind, Inc. for the Brown Legal Access Award, has the mandate to improve the delivery of legal services to the public, with a concentration on those of moderate income. For details on the Committee's activities, Click here. The ABA committee's most recent projects, policies, and innovations to improve the public's access to legal services can be found on their Website at http://www.abanet.org/legalservices/delivery, and have been copied below for your convenience.

Projects, Policies, Innovations and Access…

• White Paper on Unbundling Available
  The Delivery Committee has issued a white paper examining rules that clarify the role of lawyers who assist self-represented litigants, entitled An Analysis of Rules that Enable Lawyers to Serve Pro Se Litigants. The paper discusses recently adopted provisions of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, as well as several rules within the states’ ethics codes and rules of procedure. Issues include document preparation, limited court appearances and withdrawal procedures and proper communications between lawyers and pro se litigants. The paper is designed to assist policy-makers assess the issues and includes a checklist of factors to consider.
  
  
• Brown Award Recipients Recognized
  The 2005 Louis M. Brown Award for Legal Access was given to the Law School Consortium Project at the ABA Midyear Meeting. The Consortium works with law schools to initiate, support and expand solo and small firm practices that provide legal services to moderate income communities. Meritorious Recognition went to MdFamilyLawyer.com and Rosen Divorce, both of which rely on technology to provide services. For more info on the Brown Award, go here.
  
  
• Pro Se/Unbundling Resource Center Updated
  The Delivery Committee's Resource Center provides information to policy-makers charged with the task of advancing the response to pro se litigation. The center includes reports, articles, books, cases, ethics opinions and self-service sites in its effort to serve as an online technical assistance resource to bar leaders, the judiciary and court administrators.
  
  
• Report on Unbundling Available
  The ABA Litigation Section Modest Means Task Force has issued The Handbook on Limited Scope Legal Assistance. The handbook provides direction for both policy-makers and practitioners. It includes case studies of lawyers providing limited assistance as part of their practices, methods to maximize client services and an analysis of the applicable ethics issues. An extensive appendix includes state rules, checklists and sample client agreement forms.
  
  
• Blueprints Project helps expand affordable legal services
  On-line technical assistance is now available for bar associations, courts and law schools interesting in implementing programs that enable people of modest means to access affordable legal services. Current blueprints show how to set-up and improve modest means panels of lawyer referral services and how to develop community legal resource networks. Click here for details
  
  
• The Report on the Hearing on Access to Justice is available
  The 2002 Hearing on Access to Justice included 15 speakers and resulted in strategies to overcome impediments to the barriers preventing people from obtaining legal services. The Report of the Hearing is now available here. A PowerPoint presentation is available here.
  
  
• Innovations in the Delivery of Legal Services
  is a booklet outlining creative ways lawyers are providing legal services. Collaborative lawyering, micro-niche practices and unbundling are among the ideas advanced in this publication. Links to additional resources are provided to further details. Click here for the booklet.
  
  
• Web Site Guidelines Adopted
  The Best Practice Guidelines for Legal Information Web Site Providers were adopted by the ABA House of Delegates in February 2003. The guidelines were promulgated as a joint project between the Delivery Committee and the Law Practice Management Section's eLawyering Task Force and co-sponsored by the Business Law Section and Consortium on Legal Services and the Public. The guidelines are intended to give direction to all entities that give legal information over the Internet. Click here to view the guidelines and comments.
  
  
• Hotline Standards Available
  For direction on the establishment and operations of hotlines, see the Standards for the Operation of a Telephone Hotline Providing Legal Advice and Information, adopted by the ABA House of Delegates in August 2001.

CALIFORNIA:

The California Judicial Council has recently adopted a rule of court [(Rule 5.70) that specifically allows an attorney providing ghostwriting services in family law to NOT disclose his or her involvement.] This is based on a report by the California State Bar including focus groups with attorneys that indicated that they would be less likely to provide limited scope representation if they had to disclose their involvement. Bonnie Hough, Supervising Attorney for the Equal Access Project, notes that "This is not really a change in practice in California, but it helps to clarify that it is not improper. Judges report that they can generally tell when a litigant has received some assistance from an attorney (pleadings tend to be more comprehensible, legible and pertinent to the legal issue being raised) and they want to encourage that. The judges on the committees that considered this did not suggest that they had been defrauded. They are curious about who provided some assistance, but determined that it was more important to encourage people to get help."

• Final "Unbundled" Forms and Court Rules approved by the California Judicial Counsel effective July 1, 2003 (forms in pdf).
  
• Form FL-950 - Notice of Limited Scope Representation
  
• Form FL-955 - Application to be Relieved as Counsel Upon Completion of Limited Scope Representation
  
• Form FL-956 - Objection to Application to be Relieved as Counsel Upon Completion of Limited Scope Representation
  
• Form FL-958 - Order on Application to be Relieved as Counsel Upon Completion of Limited Scope Representation
  
• Rules 5.70 and 5.71 of the California Rules of Court are adopted, effective July 1, 2003. These rules allow attorneys greater freedom to "ghostwrite" documents.
  
• Report on Limited Scope Legal Assistance with Recommendations for California
  
• Approved by the Judicial Council on April 15, 2003.
  
• Released in October 2001 by the Limited Representation Committee of the California Commission on Access to Justice.
  
• Recommendations approved in July 2001 by the Board of Governors of the California State Bar.
  
• Appendix for the Report on Limited Scope Legal Assistance with Recommendations for California
  
• Approved by the Judicial Council on April 15, 2003.
  
• Released in October 2001 by the Limited Representation Committee of the California Commission on Access to Justice.
  
• Recommendations approved in July 2001 by the Board of Governors of the California State Bar.
  
• The Limited Representation Lawyer Referral Service Panel of the Contra Costa County community.
  
• Twenty Things that Judicial Officers Can Do To Encourage Attorneys to Provide Limited Scope Representation (and how to get attorneys to draft more intelligible declarations and enforceable orders for self represented litigants) - Created by the CA Administrative Office of the Courts, Judicial Council of California
  
• A 1999 LA County Bar Association Ethics opinion on lawyer's duties when preparing pleadings or negotiating a settlement for a pro pre litigant.
  
• Los Angeles County Bar Association Ethics opinion from 1995 on limited representation and pro per litigants.