Law Commons^™

Main Street Multidisciplinary Practice Firms: Laboratories For The Future, Susan Poser

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article examines the debate over multidisciplinary practice in the wake of the collapse of Enron and Arthur Andersen. Part I addresses the history of the scholarly debate about multidisciplinary practice in the United States. It discusses the focus on large multidisciplinary firms, feared threats to independent professional judgment, and the current rule concerning lawyers and multidisciplinary practice.

Part II examines the reasons for allowing multidisciplinary practice. The author argues that client demand, lawyer demand, and policy reasons all provide valid reasons for permitting "one-stop" shopping. Part I also discusses existing forms of multidisciplinary practice. The author argues that the …

Lay Divorce Firms And The Unauthorized Practice Of Law, Arthur R. Miller

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Effective January 1, 1972, Michigan adopted a no-fault divorce law. Since that time, at least two firms in the Detroit area have gone into the business of providing assistance to people wishing to process their own divorces. These enterprises, which have been dubbed divorce firms or divorce kit firms, have come under heavy attack from the organized bar. The State Bar of Michigan has instituted court proceedings against one firm for the unauthorized practice of law, and a court on its own initiative has already issued an injunction against the other. These cases raise two important issues: whether the divorce …

Investigation Of Unauthorized Practice Of Law By Omnibus Proceeding: The Ohio Method, Jerome M. Smith

Michigan Law Review

The practice of law is impressed with a public interest. Whether by representation in a judicial proceeding or by advice on a legal problem, the lawyer renders professional service to the public. Preserving client confidences, assuring unquestioned loyalty, and rendering expert counsel are typical obligations of the legal profession. Another responsibility of lawyers is that of protecting the public from legal practice by unqualified laymen. Three areas of activity are involved in preventing unauthorized practice of law. Lawyers and public officials must define the practice of law/ investigate and prosecute unlicensed practitioners, and by judicial remedy prohibit further unauthorized practice. …

Logic V Common Sense In Pleading, Nathan Isaacs

Michigan Law Review

Michigan's experiment in pleading--or the suppression of pleading-is being carefully watched throughout the country. Not that it is likely that many other states will go to the extreme, for it is an extreme, of substituting notice-pleading for essential-fact-pleading: but it is a fact that even the code states are experiencing a reaction in that general direction. It will probably lead to a multiplication of their "short forms," rather than to a sweeping provision that