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AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION
STANDING COMMITTEE ON GROUP AND PREPAID LEGAL SERVICES
INFORMATIONAL REPORTTO THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES
The Standing Committee and the ABA-affiliated American Prepaid Legal Services Institute (API) continue to focus on access to justice for moderate means consumers through participation in group and prepaid legal services plans.
The Standing Committee’s relationship with API enables it to be one of the few Standing Committees to provide direct services to lawyers. Accordingly, the Committee has the potential to help significantly increase ABA membership. Each year over $200 million is paid by legal plans to over 20,000 solo and small firm lawyers as fees for legal services they provide for legal plan members. This direct link to lawyers provides the Committee with an ideal opportunity to assist the ABA in its recruitment efforts with these solo and small firm practitioners. In conjunction with the Association’s recently increased outreach to solo and small firm lawyers, the Standing Committee continues to explore opportunities to attract new ABA members in conjunction with both the Standing Committee on Membership and the General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division. Among other things, the Standing Committee offers seminars on how to use group legal services plans to get more business, how to serve those clients in a high volume practice, and how to augment and balance solo and small firm practices with legal plan income, as well as other substantive issues.
As part of a renewed focus on access to justice, the Standing Committee and API put on a National Summit on Legal Services Plans. Thirty professionals from across the industry attended the two day, invitation-only event in Denver last October. Following two plenary sessions designed to bring all participants to the same basic level of knowledge, the participants were divided into two working groups and answered the same set of basic questions. The second day, they came together again to review their answers and discussions. From that Summit came a number of new ideas for advancing the concept of legal services plans as a way to address the access gap for moderate means Americans.
The Legal Plan Universal Application Portalcontinues to be a valuable member benefit. This web “portal” application allows current members the opportunity to apply to a growing number ofparticipating legal plans at once and renew their credentials all in one place. The Standing Committee continues its partnership with the ABA’s General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division and, following the summit, seeks to work with other ABA entities as well. The portal has proven to be a success witheightylawyers who have taken advantage of the portal. With additional marketing and a solid partnership with GPSolo, we expect participation tocontinue to increase.
The Standing Committee, through its involvement in and oversight of the API, will continue to undertake educational programs, legislative efforts and related activities intended to contribute to the continuing expansion of the legal services plansas a means of delivering legal services to the underserved moderate means population. The Committee serves as a primary source for information on group and prepaid legal services by distributing informational materials to lawyers, plan sponsors and legal service consumers. The Committee also contributes to the publication of API NewsBriefs, a monthly electronic newsletter reporting on state and federal regulatory developments and featuring articles on members and developments in the industry, as well as, news and events. The Prepaid Legal Services Regulation Reporter, which contains statutes, pertinent sections of lawyer's ethics codes and resource data on each of the states, plus special sections on federal law, model legislation and significant court decisions is now available in digital format, with links to all the information on a convenient CD, as well as an IP authentication portal for the law school subscribers who requested that delivery method. Subscribers include law libraries, legal plans and lawyers providing group and prepaid legal services in more than one jurisdiction.
The Annual Educational Conference will be held in Cleveland. The Conference will provide a myriad of educational seminars including, technology tips for high volume practices, current trends, including unbundling, tax laws that general practitioners need to know, best practices, and specific trustee-focused sessions.
The Standing Committee is exploring how to make the half day seminars offered in the past more accessible and cost-effective by creating live webcasts that can be repurposed as online offerings. The Committee will also be working with GPSolo on this project to expand the audience.
The Committee and API focused on membership retention this year, with particular emphasis on increasing member benefits and providing enhanced value at the same cost. The Committee approached the Standing Committee on Membership with a proposal to offer joint membership in API and the ABA as a group. Over 20,000 lawyers provide personal legal services to over 78 million covered participants, making group and prepaid legal services a large segment of the solo and small firm practice. The Committee continues to work with SCOM and GPSolo on joint membership projects.
The Committee will submit a proposal to the Enterprise Fund for a program with other ABA entities designed to promote access to justice through legal services plans.
Respectfully submitted,
Dwight L. Smith, Chair
February 2012
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