TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Sep 21, 2022

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday signed a bill requiring legislative approval for regulatory sandbox spending, the ABA Journal reports. The legislation will limit proposals from the State Bar of California to explore law firm ownership by nonlawyers and allow paralegals to perform certain legal services. The new law also requires the bar to report how much it spent on a 2018 study on online legal services and delivery. Following the study, a bar-appointed task force released a report that recommended allowing qualified non-legal professionals to provide legal services under certain conditions and eliminating prohibitions against fee splitting and non-lawyer ownership of law firms. Chairs of California’s Senate and Assembly Judiciary committees criticized the proposals and raised concern about corporate interests and loosening prohibitions on non-lawyers owning law firms. California is one of the few states exploring attorney regulation changes.