The Vermont Joint Commission
on the Future of Legal Services
Final Reports & Recommendations of the First Year Study Committees
Executive Summary
If there is a common theme in the work
of the Committees it is as follows: change
is coming. In many places, it is already here.
And it is the obligation of the legal profession to lead, follow, or get out of the way.
To understand the significance of this
theme, simply consider the number of significant ways that the world has changed in
just the past 20 years:
• Global trade and commerce has
grown to the point where no profession or community is untouched. We
are all members of the world market.
For many of us this means unprecedented access to markets, commodities, and services, but it also means
that we are tied to world events like
never before … As goes Abu Dhabi,
so goes Brattleboro.
• Security and safety concerns have
grown more prevalent. From criminal
cyber-‐attacks to terrorist events to regional instability to natural disasters,
our daily lives are touched directly or
indirectly by random threats. The universal Armageddon and stalemate of
the Cold War is gone. In its place is the
threat that a single event could wipe
out our livelihood, our jobs, or even
our lives. We live in the world of the
Airborne Toxic Event. 1
• Beyond the Internet: phone “apps,”
and cloud-
based companies have
transformed life. In 1995, one could
dream of owning every album ever
made; in 2015, you need only a subscription to one of a dozen music
sites. People do not watch TV, they
subscribe to video streaming services and “binge-‐watch.” We save
documents to “the