Oregon's 'paraprofessionals', ethics complaint against Trump lawyers, and a disbarment
Reuters Legal
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???Good morning! Oregon will allow legal 'paraprofessionals.' The SCOTUS gets new clerks. A Legal activism group lodges ethics complaint against Trump-affiliated lawyers. A lawyer who was convicted of trying to hire a hit man to kill a former client (whose girlfriend became his fiancée) remains disbarred. Here is today's Legal File ??
Oregon is the latest state to embrace regulatory changes allowing so-called legal paraprofessionals — non-lawyers who are specially trained to provide legal services in limited areas of the law.
The Oregon Supreme Court on Wednesday gave final approval to a licensed paralegal program that the Oregon State Bar has been developing since 2017. Oregon joins Washington, Utah, Arizona and Minnesota in allowing non-lawyers to provide some legal services, though Washington’s high court decided last year to stop offering new paraprofessional licenses.
Legal paraprofessionals are sometimes described as the law’s version of a nurse practitioner, providing legal services at a lower cost than a traditional lawyer. They have been promoted as a way to help states expand access to justice.
Oregon's paraprofessionals program enjoyed broad support from judges and the public, said state bar spokeswoman Kateri Walsh, but some practitioners initially voiced concerns.
Walsh said:
“We hope that it moves the needle, but it’s not a panacea.”
Graduates of the law schools at Yale, Harvard and Stanford universities dominate the incoming class of U.S. Supreme Court clerks, keeping with tradition.
The high court on Wednesday confirmed its list of the new law clerks who will serve in its upcoming October term — the first group to join the court since the May leak of its draft opinion overturning a constitutional right to abortion.
Among the 38 total new clerks, all but four graduated from schools in the so-called T-14, those ranked in the top 14 by U.S. News & World Report.
Clerks can command signing bonuses worth $400,000 at major U.S. law firms after their stint ends at the court.
A nonprofit legal activism group on Wednesday asked attorney regulators to investigate two more lawyers in connection with former President Donald Trump's effort to overturn his 2020 electoral loss to Joe Biden.
The 65 Project submitted disciplinary complaints against Kenneth Chesebro , a New York attorney who worked with the Trump campaign, and Kenneth Klukowski , a Washington lawyer who joined the Justice Department one month before Trump left office.
"The Jan. 6 committee has demonstrated time and again that the scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election was devised by lawyers," said 65 Project executive director Michael Teter, referring to the U.S. congressional committee investigating last year's Capitol riot.
An attorney for Klukowski referred Reuters to a statement he made last month saying he had been "falsely accused" of involvement in an election conspiracy.
If they decide the complaints warrant investigation, the regulators can probe and potentially sanction the attorneys.
Illinois officials this week voted against allowing an attorney to practice law again after he was convicted of trying to hire a hit man to kill a former client whose girlfriend became his fiancée.
A three-person hearing board of the Illinois Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission recommended against reinstating the law license of disbarred Algonquin, Illinois lawyer Jason Smiekel.
Citing past cases in the state, the hearing board said Smiekel's misconduct was worse than that of an attorney who tried to entice a 13-year-old girl to engage in oral sex and an attorney who ripped off lenders for $4.4 million.
"It was a most severe form of moral turpitude and caused serious damage to the legal profession."
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