Could Community Contribution Companies Improve Access to Justice?
The Canadian Bar Review, Vol. 94, No. 2, 2016
33 Pages Posted: 3 Mar 2017
Date Written: 2016
Abstract
The legal profession is engaged in two related debates: how to improve access to justice and whether to liberalize its rules of professional conduct to permit “alternative business structures” and non-lawyer ownership. The purpose of this article is to inform readers about the “community contribution company,” or C3 — a new type of hybrid corporation introduced in British Columbia — and to examine the potential of C3s or similar corporate forms to respond to both of these challenges. A C3 is a for-profit entity, but profits are subordinated to the company’s chosen “community purpose.” In the UK, where alternative business structures and non-lawyer ownership are permitted, a similar type of corporation has been used to provide both lowcost legal services and as a potential source of funding to free legal clinics. Canadian provincial law societies could use C3s to test alternative business structures and non-lawyer ownership through a corporate structure that addresses some of the concerns typically raised in this debate.
Keywords: corporate law, corporations, hybrid corporations, social enterprise, community contribution company
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