LEJ Statement of Principles
Legal Entrepreneurs for Justice (LEJ) is a small business incubator for lawyers to establish socially conscious law practices. These lawyers will develop market-based solutions to serve low and moderate-income Coloradans who cannot afford legal services at traditional firms. Central to the project is developing innovative service models that maximize technology, leverage existing referral networks, and feature attorney-client collaboration and à la carte service offerings.
Lawyers participating in LEJ are committed to establishing successful law practices that:
-Focus on serving the legal needs of low and moderate-income clients who typically have too much income to qualify for free legal aid but do not have the means to afford legal assistance in the traditional legal market*.
-Concentrate on areas of law where the legal market does not provide sufficient access to legal assistance for low and moderate-income people.
-Seek to make legal assistance more approachable by placing deliberate emphasis on understanding clients’ perspectives and adapting to their needs, and by working with clients in a collaborative effort to address their legal issues and achieve their goals.
-Utilize innovative methods to make legal assistance more accessible and affordable for clients in the target market and to reach those clients, including:
-Exclusively using fixed fees and other alternatives to the billable hour in order to provide greater fairness, flexibility, transparency, and certainty to clients;
-Offering limited scope representation, when appropriate, to provide clients with additional options for representation; and
-Maximizing the use of technology to create efficiencies in practice that benefit the client and the law practice.
Lawyers participating in LEJ are also committed to:
-Collaborating with fellow LEJ participants and other LEJ partner entities.
-Actively participating in efforts to improve the profession, the practice of law and the larger justice system.
-Developing economically sustainable and replicable delivery models for meeting the legal needs of the LEJ target market.