Daniel Carson

With the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling to effectively end affirmative action in college admissions, universities and law firms are looking for new ways to continue diversity efforts they had in place and create new initiatives to make their campuses and law offices more representative of society as a whole.

At its annual summit Thursday, one of the bar association's breakout sessions,”Exploring Alternative Forms of Licensure,” allowed members to give their own feedback on what they think about having non-attorneys perform certain legal services and what those services might be.

State bar association looks at limited legal licensing for non-attorneys

The Indiana State Bar Association has been taking a closer look at addressing the state’s attorney shortage, including the possibility of allowing some specially trained non-attorneys to do some legal work.

An Indianapolis attorney resigned from the Indiana bar after the Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission filed a professional misconduct complaint against him, with allegations that he failed to file paperwork in a timely manner and was non-responsive to clients in three separate immigration-related cases.

Certificates of public advantage, or COPAs, are a relatively new feature of Indiana law with specific language on when and where the Indiana Department of Health can grant them for a hospital merger.

Pay and location are often important considerations, as are workplace culture and professional development opportunities within a firm or public entity.

But growing rate increases over the last several years have them turning to alternative legal services, hiring more in-house staff and using artificial intelligence to control their costs.

For nondocumented spouses of U.S. citizens, the path to obtaining legal status has typically involved a mountain of paperwork and a trip back to their home countries.