Jayne Reardon

Jayne is the Executive Director of the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism. A tireless advocate for professionalism, Jayne oversees programs and initiatives to increase the civility and professionalism of attorneys and judges, to create inclusiveness in the profession, and to promote increased service to the public.

Connect: Jayne's Twitter Profilehttps://www.lexblog.com/author/jayne-reardon/feed/
Firm/Organization: Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism
Blogs: 2Civility Blog

Latest Articles

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Modifying the Model Rules of Professional Conduct that prescribe the business of lawyers could help lawyers as well as consumers. That’s a premise of work being done by task forces across the U.S. As I’ve written before, task forces in several states including Illinois, California, Arizona, and Utah are developing recommendations to change legal regulations to spur innovation and the effective delivery of legal services to consumers. In addition, a resolution from the…
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At the request of Dan Linna, Director of Law and Technology Initiatives at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Dan Rodriguez (also of Northwestern) and I facilitated the October meetup of Northwestern’s Chicago Law and Technology Initiative. The group brings together Chicagoans to explore legal innovation, how technology can improve legal services/access to justice and legal startups. We designed the meetup as a discussion on regulatory reform with perspectives from tech entrepreneurs, law firm legal…
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Yesterday, the Chicago Bar Association (CBA) and the Chicago Bar Foundation (CBF) launched a joint task force to respond to the market failure in consumer legal services. In addition to addressing the gap in access to legal services, the CBA/CBF Task Force on the Sustainable Practice of Law and Innovation will address how lawyers are hampered and suffering under the current regime. As CBF Executive Director Bob Glaves said at the kick off, “this new…
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Change doesn’t come rapidly in law. That’s a good thing. The rule of law is predicated on predictability and consistency with precedent. However, if the rapid pace of changes in technology and globalization leave law behind and out of the equation, that’s a problem. Here’s where the idea of regulatory sandboxes may help. What’s a regulatory sandbox? “Regulatory sandbox” refers to a way for companies and regulators to experiment with new types of services and…
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Do lawyer ethics rules prohibit innovation in the delivery of legal services and contribute to the access to justice gap? Yes, according to a task force on lawyer regulation formed last summer by the California State Bar’s Board of Trustees. The task force has recommended changing some key lawyer ethics rules. California isn’t alone in exploring this issue. Arizona and Utah have also convened task forces. Illinois has been studying similar issues for some time.…
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There’s been a disturbing justice gap in the U.S. for decades. The legal profession has responded by encouraging pro bono legal services to low-income Americans, allowing the “unbundling” of legal services into smaller pieces, utilizing technology to reach more people and exploring efficiencies in the delivery of legal services. Most of these approaches assume people aren’t using lawyers for their civil legal needs because they’re too expensive. But cost is not the only reason for…
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One thing that defines the legal profession is that it’s “self-governing.” Lawyers have ethical regulations that bind them together in service to others. But do lawyer ethics rules effectively serve the profession? Do these regulations serve the public? Not as well as they should. Rationale for Self-Regulation What’s this notion of “self-regulation?” Lawyers aren’t licensed or regulated by a department within the executive branch of the government but by state supreme courts. This isn’t set…
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Legal innovation is all the rage in our profession. In fact, innovation has been a hot topic in many industries for a while now. Law’s stock in trade has been analyzing and applying specialized legal knowledge to solving clients’ problems. But since technology has made information widely available, lawyers no longer have a monopoly. The general public is searching the internet for legal information and services. Companies are selling legal information and services on the…
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Lawyers have a duty to represent their clients. At the same, they have a responsibility to the legal system and the quality of justice administered. These three sets of obligations are laid out in the Preamble to the Rules of Professional Conduct. The Preamble urges lawyers to promote civility and to further the public’s confidence in the rule of law and the justice system. So what does it mean to promote civility and the rule of…
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More than politeness, civility in government is the glue that holds our republic together. Discussion about civility tends to focus on good manners, or how people speak and behave. But that’s only part of being civil. That people speak and what is substantively communicated are also key components. Respectful sharing of differing viewpoints and compromise around policy makes for civility in government. And America is saying we need more of it. Civility in government =…