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Extra Law Prices: Why Mrpc 5.4 Continues To Needlessly Burden Access To Civil Justice For Low- To Moderate-Income Clients, R. Matthew Black Jul 2019

Extra Law Prices: Why Mrpc 5.4 Continues To Needlessly Burden Access To Civil Justice For Low- To Moderate-Income Clients, R. Matthew Black

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Whether alternative business structures might improve access to justice for low- to moderate-income clients remains a contentious matter.8 Because alternative business structures are generally unavailable, lawyers rely on 501(c)(3) non-profit status and sliding-scale fee structures to reach an underserved market of low-to moderate-income clientele. Nevertheless, use of a sliding- scale fee structure is rare—perhaps because it fails to maximize law firm profits. A sliding-scale fee structure also does not assist clients who need legal services, but do not qualify for LSC-funded programs and are unable to pay even a portion of subsidized legal fees.

This Note addresses why using a …


Address By Professor David B. Wilkins, Washington And Lee University School Of Law Commencement Exercises, May 5, 2018, David B. Wilkins, Brant J. Hellwig May 2019

Address By Professor David B. Wilkins, Washington And Lee University School Of Law Commencement Exercises, May 5, 2018, David B. Wilkins, Brant J. Hellwig

Washington and Lee Law Review

Professor David B. Wilkins of Harvard Law School delivered an invited address to the Washington and Lee Law Class of 2018 at their commencement ceremony. Following the conclusion of the ceremony, Dean Brant Hellwig secured Professor Wilkins' gracious permission to publish the address in the Washington and Lee Law Review, and provides a written introduction to Professor Wilkins' speech here.

Professor Wilkins undertook considerable research in crafting a commencement address that incorporated several prominent figures from the history W&L Law and the University. His speech highlighted not only the contributions of George Washington and Robert E. Lee, for whom …


The New-Breed, “Die-Hard” Chinese Lawyer: A Comparison With American Civil Rights Cause Lawyers, James E. Moliterno, Rongjie Lan Mar 2019

The New-Breed, “Die-Hard” Chinese Lawyer: A Comparison With American Civil Rights Cause Lawyers, James E. Moliterno, Rongjie Lan

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

In times of social upheaval, lawyers can mark the way toward social change. In particular, when lawyers become more aggressive than traditional lawyers in the cause of fighting injustice, they face backlash from multiple sources, including government and their own profession. Such was the case during the U.S. civil rights movement. Unusually aggressive behavior by cause lawyers was met with hostility from their own profession and from government action. Those lawyers, while battered at times with physical violence, bar ethics charges, contempt of court, and state hostility, survived and changed social conditions at the same time they altered the culture …


Progress Is A Chameleon, Melanie D. Wilson Jan 2019

Progress Is A Chameleon, Melanie D. Wilson

Scholarly Articles

Progress is a chameleon. Its hue changes with our perspective, which is influenced by our race, gender, socio-economic status, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, age, and ancestry, among other influences. The amount of progress we perceive also varies from person to person and depends on the type of law we practice and whether we work in a small town or big city. Perhaps most importantly, how we view the rapidity of change in the legal profession — as stagnant, developing, or somewhere in between — is impacted by our unique experiences, our psychology, the length of time we have been lawyers, …