The Los Angeles Times on June 2, 2009 reported that Harvard Law School graduate Luz Herrera stated: "Ninety percent of the population needs a new model for legal services." Herrera said: "There's only a system [of legal representation] for the well off, and for the very, very poor." Herrera hung up her shingle in Compton, California, home to 50,000 Latinos, and took on the kinds of cases that typically are the bread and butter of small-town attorneys -- divorce and child custody, bankruptcy, probate and real-estate transactions. Herrera said, "I learned to think like a lawyer there (Harvard)... I learned how to be a lawyer here. That's what Compton gave me."

Chief Justices, Others, Consider Ideas On Regulating Lawyers in Global Setting

The ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct, 25 Law. Man. Prof. Conduct 300, reports an invitation only event, "The Future Is Here: Globalization and the Regulation of the Legal Profession" was held on May 27, 2009 in Chicago. Some conference participants expressed concern about tackling internationalization when the United States has yet to implement a driver's-license approach to domestic multijurisdictional practice. ABA President-Elect Carolyn B. Lamm told the audience that this country simply does not have the luxury of avoiding the issues. Panelist Anthony Davis of Hinshaw & Culbertson in New York cited what he sees as the absurdity of state-by-state regulation of lawyers favors national, uniform regulation of the legal profession. It makes no sense for a team of lawyers to be working under multiple sets of rules, Davis said.

The NJ Supreme Court Lightens Up on In-House-Counsel Licensure by a Micron for Unemployed Lawyers

Charles Toutant, of the New Jersey Law Journal on June 8, 2009 reported the Court said an in-house lawyer whose employment is terminated need not re-apply for a license if the Court is notified of new employment within one year, rather than the prior 90 day period. The Court also said registered in-house who are terminated may continue to work on a contract or per diem basis for his or her former employer, without having to get a plenary license, and provide pro bono if other hoops are swished from the three point line. These micrometer (millionth of a meter) were made in consideration of the plight of lawyers laid off from their corporate jobs.

See http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202431313861