MDP is not a threat to lawyers, but rather an opportunity to offer broader services to clients to meet their ever more diverse and sophisticated needs. For litigators, MDP offers the ability to team with economists, actuaries, forensic accountants and others to support complex litigation such as antitrust, RICO, financial crimes and similar cases. Different mixes of professionals such as engineers, biologists, geologists, hydrologists and other specialists teamed with attorneys in one organization could offer comprehensive services in environmental, intellectual property and other specialized areas of litigation. Moreover, the reality is that much of what litigators think of as being within the scope of their work is now subject to competition by accounting firms and others who routinely perform investigations, review and manage documents and prepare witness outlines, discovery plans and litigation budgets. Non-lawyers consult as well on employee benefits, tax regulations, environmental law, employment discrimination and a range of other issues.
Clients seek their counsel.
To prevent it makes lawyers and law firms uncompetitive in a consumer-driven world. That won't change if the partners are both lawyers and non-lawyers. Reports of abuse of screening are essentially non-existent. The audit role of the accountant and the lawyer role as advocate are incompatible. The lawyer in an accounting firm based-MDP should not be representing the audit client of the MDP in litigation.