Ex-ABA leader joins Rocket Lawyer amid push to grow alternative legal business

LegalZoom.com

14/09/2023 11:00

By Sara Merken
       Sept 14 (Reuters) - Online legal services company Rocket
Lawyer has hired former American Bar Association executive
director Jack Rives, it said on Thursday, as the company seeks a
license to join Arizona's alternative legal business program.  
    Rives led the ABA, the nation's largest voluntary bar
association, for more than 12 years before stepping down in
February. He was previously a Judge Advocate General in the U.S.
Air Force for 33 years.
    Rocket Lawyer said Rives is filling a newly created position
as president of Rocket Legal Professional Services.
    The company, founded in 2008, offers digital tools to create
and sign documents, form a business and file taxes affordably.
CEO and founder Charley Moore said the new unit will consolidate
services requiring human assistance.
    The professional services division will apply to be licensed
as an Arizona alternative business structure in the next few
months, according to Rives.
    Arizona loosened its regulations governing law firm
ownership in 2020, becoming the first U.S. state to scrap a rule
that barred non-lawyer ownership of law firms. The change allows
lawyers and non-lawyers in Arizona to co-own businesses that
provide legal services by applying for an alternative business
structure arrangement.
    San Francisco-based Rocket Lawyer previously applied to the
Arizona program in 2021 but paused the process to do additional
planning and recruit a leader for the unit, Moore said. The
company will withdraw its prior application and start a new one,
he said.
    A spokesperson for the court said Rocket Lawyer's
application has been inactive.
    States have long resisted changing rules that bar
non-lawyers from having an economic interest in law firms,
mainly based on concerns over the erosion of professional ethics
and protecting clients.
    Still, Arizona is on the leading edge of U.S. states
beginning to adopt similar programs, with the stated goal of
expanding access to legal services and enabling innovation.
Utah's top court authorized a regulatory "sandbox" program in
2020 to allow businesses to experiment with new legal business
models. 
    Arizona has approved more than 50 companies, according to
orders issued on the court's website, including national legal
services providers LegalZoom and Elevate, and flexible legal
talent company Axiom.
    Rocket Lawyer was the first major legal services company to
gain approval under Utah's program in 2020. Rives will head the
company's Utah participation and its alternative business
structure initiative in the United Kingdom.
    Rives emphasized the company's mission in Arizona to expand
its services and use technology, like generative artificial
intelligence, to better connect individuals with lawyers.
    Moore said approval there will allow Rocket Lawyer to
directly employ lawyers to help customers with matters like
document review, and offer additional legal services to people
who get Rocket Lawyer as an employment benefit.
    
    Read more: 
    Axiom launches Arizona law firm as state shakes up legal
practice rules
    ABA leader to step down as lawyer group fights to keep
members
    LegalZoom gets Arizona approval for alternative legal biz
structure

 (Reporting by Sara Merken)