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Sept 14 (Reuters) – Online legal services company Rocket Lawyer has hired former American Bar Association executive director Jack Rives, it said on Thursday, as the company seeks a license to join Arizona’s alternative legal business program.

Rives led the ABA, the nation’s largest voluntary bar association, for more than 12 years before stepping down in February. He was previously a Judge Advocate General in the U.S. Air Force for 33 years.

Rocket Lawyer said Rives is filling a newly created position as president of Rocket Legal Professional Services.

The company, founded in 2008, offers digital tools to create and sign documents, form a business and file taxes affordably. CEO and founder Charley Moore said the new unit will consolidate services requiring human assistance.

The professional services division will apply to be licensed as an Arizona alternative business structure in the next few months, according to Rives.

Arizona loosened its regulations governing law firm ownership in 2020, becoming the first U.S. state to scrap a rule that barred non-lawyer ownership of law firms. The change allows lawyers and non-lawyers in Arizona to co-own businesses that provide legal services by applying for an alternative business structure arrangement.

San Francisco-based Rocket Lawyer previously applied to the Arizona program in 2021 but paused the process to do additional planning and recruit a leader for the unit, Moore said. The company will withdraw its prior application and start a new one, he said.

A spokesperson for the court said Rocket Lawyer’s application has been inactive.

States have long resisted changing rules that bar non-lawyers from having an economic interest in law firms, mainly based on concerns over the erosion of professional ethics and protecting clients.

Still, Arizona is on the leading edge of U.S. states beginning to adopt similar programs, with the stated goal of expanding access to legal services and enabling innovation. Utah’s top court authorized a regulatory “sandbox” program in 2020 to allow businesses to experiment with new legal business models.

Arizona has approved more than 50 companies, according to orders issued on the court’s website, including national legal services providers LegalZoom and Elevate, and flexible legal talent company Axiom.

Rocket Lawyer was the first major legal services company to gain approval under Utah’s program in 2020. Rives will head the company’s Utah participation and its alternative business structure initiative in the United Kingdom.

Rives emphasized the company’s mission in Arizona to expand its services and use technology, like generative artificial intelligence, to better connect individuals with lawyers.

Moore said approval there will allow Rocket Lawyer to directly employ lawyers to help customers with matters like document review, and offer additional legal services to people who get Rocket Lawyer as an employment benefit.

Read more:

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ABA leader to step down as lawyer group fights to keep members

LegalZoom gets Arizona approval for alternative legal biz structure

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