The Model Rules of Professional Conduct prohibit partnerships between lawyers and nonlawyers in the practice of law, a ban that purportedly exists to protect lawyers’ professional independence of judgment. Despite this noble sentiment, the prohibition ultimately hurts the legal market, to the expense of potential clients, by limiting the professional options available at the lawyer’s disposal. The existence of lawyer-nonlawyer partnerships, recently espoused by two states, both decreases the costs and barriers involved in obtaining justice and encourages much-needed legal innovation. While other scholars have proposed schemes that would permit such partnerships without compromising the lawyer’s professional responsibility, their methods arguably fail to align the incentives of lawyers with those of their nonlawyer partners. This Note attempts to address this issue by drawing from traditional principles of partnership law and vicarious liability. Holding lawyers, individually, to a strict liability standard concerning the legal misconduct of their nonlawyer partners while designating their partnerships as independently disciplined entities safeguards the professional responsibility of lawyers and nonlawyers alike, paving the way for reform of Model Rule 5.4(b).
