Invitation to Lawyers Interested in Offering Unbundled Services and Legal Coaching

February 27, 2019

By Kim Newsham; Family Justice Services, Ministry of Justice

Most lawyers offer comprehensive legal service, meaning they represent a client from the beginning of the matter/issue, to the end. The lawyer appears in court, drafts documents, prepares correspondence, and generally manages all aspects of the case. Research indicates that not everyone wants this level of representation, and not everyone can afford this level of representation, but may benefit greatly from specific legal services. You have likely heard about and may offer unbundled services, but may not be as familiar with ‘legal coaching’ as a type of legal practice. If you have not heard of legal coaching, a helpful definition by expert in the area, Nikki Gershbain states,

“Legal coaching is a type of unbundled legal service, where a lawyer-coach offers behind-the-scenes guidance on both the hard and soft skills of lawyering, in order to provide a (primarily) self-represented litigant with the strategies and tools needed to present their case as effectively as possible in the absence of counsel.”

The Law Society of Saskatchewan, Ministry of Justice, and CREATE Justice (the Centre for Research, Evaluation and Action Towards Equal Justice), College of Law is launching the “Saskatchewan Legal Coaching and Unbundled Services Pilot Project”. A webpage is being developed devoted to practice resources for lawyers and information for the public about unbundled services and legal coaching. Part of the public information will include a list of lawyers who offer these services. The existing list that we have currently includes about 30 lawyers, from 4 cities.

We are interested in hearing from you. We invite you to contact us to express your interest in the following:

1.  If you would like your name added to the public list as a lawyer who offers unbundled services and/or legal coaching, please email Kim Newsham at kim.newsham@gov.sk.ca.
2.  SAVE THE DATE: A 1-day legal coaching workshop will be held in each of Saskatoon and Regina during the October 2019 Saskatchewan Access to Justice week.  Stay tuned for further updates. If you would like to be notified about new resources and training events related to unbundled services and legal coaching as they become available, please email Kim Newsham at kim.newsham@gov.sk.ca.