Gig Lawyers in the U.S. Economy: Realizing the Potential of Platform Markets and Bolstering Ethical Duties to Affect Change and Innovation

• Author: Carolyn M. Corcoran
• Position: J.D., Georgetown University Law Center (expected May 2021); B.A., B.S., sunmma cum laude, Arizona State University (2016)
• Pages: 883-893

Gig Lawyers in the U.S. Economy: Realizing the

Potential of Platform Markets and Bolstering

Ethical Duties to Affect Change and Innovation

CAROLYN M. CORCORAN*

INTRODUCTION

When you think of a gig worker, likely an Uber or Lyft driver comes to mind.

Perhaps a TaskRabbit helped you move last weekend, or you have hired a

SmartSitter to watch your children in the past. Independent workers, categorized

as contractors, domestic workers, gig workers, and some part-time workers have

pervaded the collective understanding of what it means to work in the United

States for years.

1

According to The Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in the Age of

Machines, led by David Autor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “the

distinction between these employment categories has arguably grown more am-

biguous over time, while the incentive for employers to reclassify employees as

independent workers has only increased.”

2

In this November 2020 report, Autor

and his research team concluded, “[t]here is no ready solution to this problem,

but it is clear that employment policy and regulation requires innovation to keep

pace with the changing structure of work.”

3

Independent work is not unique or segregated to lower wage, unskilled labor.

Rather, independent work has long been a part of the legal industry. This Note

addresses the unique position “gig lawyers,” defined as contract lawyers that uti-

lize platform-based technologies to find projects and assignments, hold in the

U.S. economy.

Part I will argue gig lawyers are a distinctive subset of independent workers,

tracing the history from traditional contract lawyering through the entrance app-

and web-based platforms in the legal industry. Part II will analyze how the

increased use of these types of platforms to find gig lawyers presents several com-

plex, novel ethical issues, including issues related to confidentiality, competence,

and the unauthorized practice of law. Part III will consider the future of gig

* J.D., Georgetown University Law Center (expected May 2021); B.A., B.S., sunmma cum laude, Arizona

State University (2016). © 2021, Carolyn M. Corcoran.

1. See David Autor, et al., The Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in an Age of Intelligent Machines,

MIT (2020), https://workofthefuture.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2020-Final-Report4.pdf [https://

perma.cc/GAU4-MDK8] (last visited Feb. 26, 2021).

2. Id. at 62.

3. Id.

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