The Debate Over Non-Lawyer Firm Ownership Is Officially Closed, For Now

There was no funeral, but the prospect that the American Bar Association would consider non-lawyer ownership of firms at its annual meeting this summer has quietly died.

The ABA’s House of Delegates needed to see a formal proposal on so-called “alternative business structures,” which allow non-lawyer ownership, by May 10.

Alas, the Commission on the Future of the Legal Profession, the ABA group in charge of the debate over ABS, allowed the deadline to pass without submitting anything.

The Commission’s decision to stand down isn’t surprising, given the largely negative feedback from lawyers to its April paper on ABS. At 16 pages, the paper noted ABS could increase access to justice by lowering ...