Should ABA strike ‘nonlawyer’ from its vocabulary? Petition says it’s time
April 11, 2024, 11:14 am CDT
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The word “nonlawyer” fails to acknowledge the wide range of contributions of all legal professionals and should no longer be used by the ABA, according to a petition posted on LinkedIn. (Image from Shutterstock)
The word “nonlawyer” fails to acknowledge the wide range of contributions of all legal professionals and should no longer be used by the ABA, according to a petition posted on LinkedIn.
The petition posted by lawyers Olga V. Mack and Damien Riehl calls on the ABA to “engage in the work and dialogue to determine a more appropriate term,” Bloomberg Law reports in a column by Above the Law founder David Lat.
Lat is a lawyer and a writer who publishes at Original Jurisdiction, a Substack newsletter about the law and legal affairs.
Mack is a fellow at the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics, and Riehl is a vice president at legal technology company vLex. Their petition argues that the term “nonlawyer” relegates legal professionals to a secondary status and marginalizes their contributions.
The petition will be passed along to ABA leadership for consideration, according to ABA spokesperson Carol Stevens, the associate executive director of media relations and strategic communications.
Riehl told Bloomberg law that the field of medicine has already embraced a different term to describe medical professionals such as nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants. The are “allied medical professionals,” rather than “nonphysicians’ or “nondoctors.”
Bryan Garner, the editor of Black’s Law Dictionary and an ABA Journal contributor, told Bloomberg Law that he is “wholly agnostic” on the issue as a lexicographer.
“If, over time, ‘nonlawyer’ takes on pejorative connotations or becomes something of a taboo, my writings will reflect that fact,” Garner said. “But in many circles today, the term seems to have the opposite of pejorative connotations!”
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