Q&A: legal roundtable.

• Position: Industry Outlook - Discussion

Nate Alder

Christensen & Jensen

Kevin Anderson

Fabian Clendenin

Lori Barker

Kirton | McConkie

Randall Bateman

Show Christensen & Martineau

Dickson Burton

TraskBritt

Catherine Larson

Strong & Hanni

Christian Clinger

Clinger Lee Clinger LLC

T. Richard Davis

Callister Nebeker & McCullough

Peggy Hunt

Dorsey & Whitney

Brian Lloyd

Parr Brown Gee & Loveless

Eric Maxfield

Holland & Hart

Ellen Maycock

Kruse Landa Maycock & Ricks

Kevin Pinegar

Durham Jones & Pinegar

Margaret Plane

Salt Lake City Attorney's Office

Hall Pos

Parsons Behle & Latimer

Sean Reyes

State of Utah / Office of the Attorney General

Keven Rowe

Jones Waldo

Jeff Silvestrini

Cohne Kinghorn

Wayne Western

Thorpe North and Western

Greg Williams

VanCott Bagley Cornwall & McCarthy

Scott Young

Stoel Rives LLP

Jim Gilson

Utah State Bar

In our annual Legal roundtable, industry veterans discuss trends in billing for traditional clients--is the billable hour going to be a thing of the past? They also talk about efforts to make legal services affordable for modest- income clients, the quality of new law school grads, and their firms' efforts to accommodate Millennials' desire for work-life balance.

We'd like to thank Jim D. Gilson, president of the Utah State Bar, for moderating the discussion. Not pictured: Melissa Beutler, Big-D Construction

What areas of the law do you see as being a growing trend in terms of types of clients or types of cases?

Utah is really a hotbed for technology companies. So it's not just intellectual property--these types of companies need the full suite of services. We're seeing as much of an industry growth as we are for a particular type of law.

~Scott Young

WILLIAMS: We've seen a very dramatic growth in intellectual property, mostly patent prosecutions. It's really changed.

CLINGER: One of my main practice areas is auto dealership law, representing the third-largest dealership group in the state. We've seen growth in auto dealership law, which involves large real estate transactions, construction and large commercial lending. We've also seen major changes within auto dealership law.

ANDERSON: We've had an exponential growth in fighting federal regulatory agencies. I've been involved in three or four cases in the last couple years that have gone to the D.C. Circuit. We've got one coming up in a couple weeks, just fighting what I would call federal regulatory overreach. My practice tends to be related to utilities and mining, but it's happening through all branches of the federal government.

POS: Just adding to that, what we're seeing is the process is much slower because of the budget cuts at the federal level. What would take several months is now taking many, many months to get through the process. It's even more frustrating because of the higher scrutiny, but also the time it takes and the costs of that process.

SILVESTRINI: There's lots of stuff going on with mergers and acquisitions. But actually, that touches on the Affordable Care Act and the implementation of electronic medical records. We're seeing a lot of activity in medical practice consolidation--mergers and acquisitions--and changes in healthcare providers in trying to adapt to the federal regulations that are affecting them with respect to medical records and more red tape.

REYES: I would just highlight this one area, because it continues to grow, and that is issues related to senior elder care. We look at a lot of issues with regard to protecting that demographic, whether that is white-collar fraud or other crimes. We have a new white-collar crime registry bill that the governor signed. Those types of things help educate and empower the more vulnerable segments of the community.

BARKER: We've seen a big boom in the estate planning area. I guess it's the aging baby boomers. We've had to hire a few associates just to keep up with that. And our real estate guys have lots of work now; they're very, very busy.

ALDER: I'll add one more topic to the discussion: cyber security. We're advising clients a lot now on risks, their liability and protection.

And sadly, we're doing a little bit more professional liability defense work than perhaps this group would like to see. But that has picked up, and for other professions as well. The litigation climate is robust, and advising clients to avoid litigation is one of our main focuses.

MAXFIELD: Our firm is seeing a lot of real estate development happening. That goes hand in hand with the corporate and emerging growth that's happening at the same time.

HUNT: We're seeing a lot of larger corporate mergers and acquisitions, securities work, litigation and white-collar crime work. And in our firm we've had some industry groups focus specifically on healthcare, mining and energy.

Access to legal services is becoming more of an issue--particularly with the prevalence of free legal forms people can find on the internet. How is that playing out for your firms? How do you try to make legal services more accessible to people of modest means?

Often those online, self-serve, form-based companies create more work for attorneys because the individuals don't know how to properly fill out the forms, and then they have to come to an attorney to get it right. If they came to an attorney the first time around, it'd be done right from the start.

~Christian Clinger

HUNT: I serve as a Chapter 7 trustee for the District of Utah, so I'm seeing a lot of consumer cases coming through with middleclass folks who are really down and out, and a lot of those folks have used these forms because they don't feel like getting an attorney is an option because of the cost.

I agree that usually the forms create more problems than they're worth. That industry is going to exist because they're making money at it. But our profession should address it more from the end of providing services to people who are in the middle class.

MAYCOCK: The court website has divorce forms that people can do themselves. I challenge most lawyers to fill them out. They're very hard. I've seen a lot of people coming in with these messes where they've actually ended up divorced, but they've got contradictory provisions, they've got things that just won't work. If we're going to give people forms, we're going to have to do a better job.

HUNT: We 're seeing a large increase in the amount of people representing themselves in bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is very complex, and you sign these forms under penalty of perjury, and it can lead to real problems for a lot of folks.

PLANE: Are people using these forms because they don't know how to find lawyers? Are they using them because they believe lawyers are too expensive? Are they using them because lawyers are too expensive? Is it a regulatory problem or is it a delivery of services problem? That's a lot to wrestle with, and we'd better do it quickly.

DAVIS: For the past three years I've been co-chairing the Third District pro bono committee with Justice Himonas, and one of the undertakings that we were given by Judge Hansen was to see what We could do to help people who are coming to court, have no idea why they're there and have no idea what to do once they get there.

Several of your firms have come forward and said, "On a pro bono project, we'll come to the debtor's court...