By Erin Mulvaney | Wall Street Journal
Arizona launched a program to expand access to legal services for people who can’t afford or find lawyers. Three years later, the program is catching Wall Street’s eye.
In most states, the owners of law firms need to be attorneys. But the Arizona Supreme Court lifted that barrier, and since 2021, nonlawyers can apply to open firms known as Alternative Business Structures to provide legal services in the state…
From taxes to the metaverse
Other new Arizona firms range from technology platforms that generate court documents for cheap to traditional business law outfits that help perform general legal work. Others provide services in niche areas, such as bounty hunting, while some handle tax services or estate planning. There is one that focuses, in part, on legal issues in the metaverse.
About one-third of the new firms specialize in personal injury claims and mass tort litigation, which is where investors have turned their attention, making Arizona’s fledgling program a potential runway for litigation financiers.
“The most surprising thing—in our naiveté—were the numbers of either marketing companies or private equity from out of state that were interested in investing in law firms,” said Lynda Shely, an Arizona attorney who sits on the committee that oversees the program.
