Combatting major threats' to law: New York County Lawyers Association's new president announces plan to boost legal service offerings | amNewYork

The legal system faces three pressing threats: the Trump administration, limited access to attorneys, and artificial intelligence. Ronald Minkoff, newly inaugurated president of the New York County Lawyers Association, plans to address these issues through association action. He announced a task force to create a plan for training non-lawyers such as paralegals, social workers, and other community members to provide pro-bono legal services under lawyer guidance. The goal is to reduce the counsel gap by multiplying legal skills through certification for roles in housing court and family court. Minkoff said rule of law depends on affordable access to counsel, and the association will develop a proposal for the state court system to implement training programs.

"First on the list, Minkoff announced the formation of a task force to create a plan for non-lawyers such as paralegals, social workers and other members of the public to be trained by lawyers to provide pro-bono legal services to people who otherwise would not be able to afford an attorney. In Minkoff's view, the plan is essential to combating the significant threat to the rule of law posed by a lack of easy access to counsel."

"Lawyers have a monopoly on legal services, and for a lot of reasons that's justified because of our training, but frankly, we're not meeting the need, he told amNewYork after his address. We don't have enough people to meet the need, so we have to find a way to kind of multiply our skills. One way to do it is to train people so that they're certificated to serve people in housing court or in family court."

"If people can't afford a lawyer, if they can't access our courts, if they can't afford to get a contract written, then the idea of rule of law is a fantasy, Minkoff added. He said members of the bar association would be working to create a proposal they'd eventually submit to the state's court system, which would ultimately carry out the training for non-lawyers."

"Though he said New York has been resistant to these types of programs in the past, he is hoping he and his bar association can push the state to adopt this solution to the counsel crisis."

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