Previous Washington condition bar chief remembered as a champion for authorized innovation

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Obituaries

By Lyle Moran

December 17, 2020, 8:59 am CST

Paula Littlewood, a champion for lawful market innovation who led the Washington Condition Bar Association for extra than a ten years, died of most cancers Monday.

The 55-calendar year-old mother of two was also closely included with the ABA, getting served on the ABA’s Fee on the Upcoming of Legal Expert services from 2014 to 2016 and the ABA’s Activity Force on the Potential of Legal Training that issued a remaining report in 2014.

Littlewood grew to become the Washington State Bar’s executive director in 2007 and was ideal regarded for her function in utilizing the Confined License Lawful Specialists initiative, authorized by the point out supreme court in 2012. The nonlawyer limited licensees, recognised as LLLTs, were permitted to handle some legal jobs inside of relatives legislation.

Littlewood traveled both equally nationally and internationally to speak about the LLLT initiative made to improve accessibility to justice, and other states have considering the fact that introduced or viewed as launching equivalent paraprofessional licensing techniques.

Washington Supreme Courtroom Justice Barbara A. Madsen, who was the court’s main justice when it adopted the limited license rule, referred to as Littlewood a visionary who was “fully devoted to her profession and the people we support, the community.”

“There were exciting factors happening in the bar—we had been opening windows and doors, seeking to make justice the target,” Madsen stated in a assertion Wednesday. “The earth is likely to be fewer fascinating and emptier devoid of her thoughts, insights, electrical power and kindness.”

Frances Dujon-Reynolds, who served as the Washington bar’s director of human means for about 14 years, wrote in a textual content message Tuesday that Littlewood was “an influencer and leader past perception.”

Steve Crossland, Littlewood’s longtime partner and chair of the LLLT board because its inception, generally offered about the LLLT initiative with Littlewood. He explained the two would share a indicating with each and every other along the lines of, “This generation’s insane notion is tomorrow’s common sense.”

“It gave us power,” Crossland wrote in a text message Wednesday.

But despite the early acclaim for the LLLT initiative, the Washington Supreme Court docket voted earlier this calendar year to sunset the application, citing cost worries and an clear lack of interest among the the general public in starting to be LLLTs. The LLLT initiative also dropped assistance from the Washington Condition Bar’s board, a shift that accelerated soon after Littlewood was compelled out as the association’s government director in 2019.

However, Littlewood stated earlier this calendar year that she hoped the LLLT initiative would continue to be an inspiration to other states contemplating producing comparable authorized paraprofessional licenses.

“What we’ve often hoped—and what we made use of to chat to other states about—is that with any luck , it shortens their curve to acquiring up and on the internet with this sort of a license simply because … at least they’ve obtained a product to commence from,” Littlewood explained during an episode of the ABA Journal’s Lawful Rebels Podcast released in July. “We all know when you are writing something, it is simpler to edit than to produce.”

Even while battling pancreatic most cancers, Littlewood identified other perches from which to advocate for regulatory reform of the legal industry. She served on the board of Responsive Legislation and the board of advisers for the Institute for the Advancement of the American Authorized Procedure, known as the IAALS.

“Paula represents the best of the legal profession, and the very ideal of us,” the IAALS said in a site put up. “She was a champion for the occupation to stay up to its probable, to boost and innovate, and to deal with the entry to justice disaster head on. Paula was instrumental in serving to the IAALS chart our path towards reforming legal schooling and the shipping of authorized providers.”

Littlewood was also a potent proponent of bringing the community into the discussions about how to reform the legal occupation, noting that lawyers have traditionally been quite resistant to overhauling how the sector is controlled.

Also, she emphasised that the rising unmet lawful desires amongst people must push the ongoing regulatory overhaul attempts in various states.

“We want to split outside what I connect with the echo chamber of the profession and definitely get started bringing the buyer and the general public to the table to have an understanding of what alterations could truly enhance their capacity to accessibility lawful solutions,” Littlewood reported on the Lawful Rebels podcast.

“There is time for incremental adjust, and there is time for daring transform,” she extra. “I believe the time now is for bold change.”