Consumer Groups Praise ABA Panel for Hearing Client Voices; Say It's Time for Lawyers to Jointly Offer Services With Other Professionals.

Business Editors

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 1, 2000

More than three dozen consumer and community action groups today applauded an American Bar Association (ABA) study group for acknowledging consumer demand for one-stop access to professional services, but said the time has come to move from study to implementation.

An amended report from the ABA's Commission on Multidisciplinary Practice (MDP), issued on May 12, said that lawyers should be able to enter into fee-sharing arrangements with other professionals and offer integrated services in areas such as estate and financial planning, establishment of small businesses, and home purchase.

Existing rules governing lawyers' conduct bars attorneys from entering such cooperative arrangements, creating additional expense, confusion and effort for consumers.

"The Bar Association's archaic rules, offered in the guise of legal ethics, are really about protecting law firms' economic interests," said Don Rounds, President of The Consumer Alliance. "After almost two years of investigation and hearings, a panel composed of leading members of the U.S. legal profession has urged its colleagues to expand consumers' choices by allowing lawyers to enter into cooperative service arrangements. It's now up to the rest of the legal profession to show it can open its minds to the 21st century. We urge the ABA House of Delegates to take the first step in that direction and support consumer needs by endorsing the Commission's recommendations."

Report at Odds With State Bars

In an earlier version of its report presented to the ABA House of Delegates last summer, the Commission said MDPs should be allowed in limited circumstances, but it opposed fee sharing. It also said that MDPs were only acceptable if lawyers retained majority ownership and control of the integrated practices. Even that modest break with past practice attracted significant resistance and its supporters did not submit it for a vote.

"This revised report is an improvement from the standpoint of consumers," said TCA's Rounds, who organized the consumer statement. "But it will have little value until it is embraced throughout the profession and becomes codified at the state level."

But the state bar associations, which govern attorneys in their respective states, have for the most part expressed steadfast opposition to the concept of MDPs, and have instead promised aggressive action to stop any encroachment onto lawyers' turf.

These state bars reject completely the extensive study and recommendations of the ABA Commission, which heard testimony from 95 witnesses, received written comments from 120 interested parties and groups, held nine days of open hearings, and met an additional 10 times in executive session.

After weighing the considerable record before it, the ABA Commission soundly concluded that there is substantial evidence that consumers want the MDP option and that allowing MDPs is the right thing for lawyers and for the public. However, many state bars continue to insist that there is no evidence of consumer demand and that allowing MDPs will mean the end of the legal profession.

Consumer Groups Concerned by Panel's Call for Delay

The 36 consumer groups that joined Rounds in applauding the ABA panel said they were disappointed that the Commission suggested that the ABA put off consideration of its recommendations until February 2001. The issue is currently on the agenda for the ABA's July 2000 meeting.

"A diverse panel, acting in good faith, has listened to the voice of consumers and agreed that legal and other professionals should be able to organize in new ways to serve client needs," said Lora Weber, President of Consumers Alliance of the South East (CASE). "But too many state bar associations seem wedded to their entrenched power. Until they also open their minds to change, American consumers will continue to suffer from the lack of integrated services that are now increasingly common in Australia and Europe."

Current Rules Deny Access to Needed Services

The consumer groups, which previously expressed their position in an April letter to the MDP Commission, said current rules "threaten to deny consumers access to existing legal services," and are thoroughly anti-consumer. The signers represent national, state, and regional organizations, and include advocates for minorities, seniors, and persons with disabilities.

James Brown, Director of the Center for Consumer Affairs at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, explained, for example, that a senior citizen may need help with estate and tax planning, financial arrangements for children and grandchildren, and health and long-term care issues - requiring assistance from a variety of professional experts.

"Because of the legal profession's rules, seniors have to troop from professional to professional and resolve the complex, overlapping and possibly conflicting counsel themselves. They should have the choice of getting this help in a single office from a unified team of professionals who offer an integrated solution to their issues," Brown said.

In that letter, they expressed the following concerns about the ban on multidisciplinary practices:

-- Consumers want more choices. MDPs mean "more consumers will be able to
satisfy unmet legal needs - such as will preparation or estate planning."

-- Few problems in society are strictly legal in nature. Average consumers are
hard pressed to find the time and money to access all the professionals
required for activities such as setting up a small business, purchasing a home,
arranging care for an older relative, or settling an estate - or sort out the
often conflicting information they receive from these separate entities.

-- As society is changing, so must consumers' ability to seek professional
help. "One-stop shopping" is a concept that has permeated many other facets of
American life because it offers consumers a time- and cost-efficient option for
addressing complex needs. The refusal to allow consumers this choice is simply
a fortification of the legal guild rather than a necessary recognition of
changing times and changing consumer needs.

The Consumer Alliance, founded by Don Rounds in 1993, is a broad-based, national coalition of dozens of consumer, senior, minority, employee, low-income and small business organizations that provides a unified voice on issues affecting ordinary consumers.

TCA plays an important role in educating and communicating with policymakers at the local, state and federal level on a wide variety of issues.

Don Rounds, President The Consumer Alliance

James L. Brown, Director Center for Consumer Affairs University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Lora H. Weber, President Consumers Alliance of the Southeast

Jim Conran, President Consumers First

Theodore Debro, Board Chairman Consumers for Affordable and Reliable Services of Alabama

Wayne Moore, Director Legal Advocacy Group American Association of Retired Persons

Mark Phigler, President Americans for Competitive Telecommunications

David A. Swankin, President Citizen Advocacy Center

Al Sterman, Secretary-Treasurer Democratic Processes Center

Ken Benner, President American Council on Consumer Awareness

Florence M. Rice, President Harlem Consumer Education Council

Ira Schoenholtz, President American Association of Business Persons with Disabilities

Ernest Wm. Bach, Executive Director Florida Action Coalition Team

Dorothy Garrick, President Columbia Consumer Education Council

Ellen M. DeWind, Director Niagara Frontier Consumers Association

Manuel Oliverez, President, National Association of Hispanic Federal Executives

Fab Torrez, Board Member Community Action Council

Phyllis G. Rowe, President Arizona Consumers Council

Mary Horne Odom, Chairman North Carolina Consumers for Affordable Electricity

Dan McCurry, Coordinator Chicago Consumer Coalition

Louis S. Meyer, President Pennsylvania Citizens Consumer Council

Jude Filler, Executive Director Texas Alliance for Human Needs

Regene Mitchell, Vice President Consumer Federation of California

Velma Montoya, President, National Council of Hispanic Women

Henry Clay White, Treasurer Wisconsin Consumers League

Virginia Jarrow, President Consumer Coalition of California

Anni Chung, Executive Director Self-Help for the Elderly

Michael Rulison, President North Carolina Consumers Council

Esther K. Shapiro, former Director Detroit Consumers Affairs

Barbara Olivas, President Hispanic Education Foundation, American GI Forum of the US (Call)

Niel Ritchie, Director Minnesotans for Safe Foods

Helen Ewing Nelson, President Consumer Research Foundation

Jeff Schuman, Executive Director Deep Fork Community Action

Rob Mayer, Professor Family and Consumer Studies University of Utah

Anne Werner, Executive Director United Seniors Health Cooperative

Jane Poertner, Executive Director Central Illinois Economic Development Corporation

Felicia Banks, Consumer Director Shisa, Inc.