The Law Office of
William Hornsby

At the intersection of Ethics & Opportunity


Who I Am
I served as staff counsel at the American Bar Association for 30 years. During that time, I led a variety of ABA entities dedicated to expanding legal services, including the Commission on Advertising and the Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services. As staff counsel to the Commission on Advertising, I authored the book Marketing and Legal Ethics: The boundaries of promoting legal services. I was also involved in the development of policies and advancement of innovative models to create better access to legal services. In 2018, I left the ABA in order to open this practice and use my skill set to help clients explore their opportunities in ways that are consistent with the various ethics rules governing the practice of law.

SERVICE AND HONORS
· Recipient of the ABA Louis M Brown Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement
· Fellow of the American Bar Foundation
· Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management
· Panel chair of the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission Hearing  Board
· Member of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers
· Member of the Board of Directors of the Justice Entrepreneurs Project legal incubator

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Chicago Kent College of Law, Adjunct Professor from 2014 to present, develop and teach Practice and Professionalism, a course focused on the use and regulations of emerging technologies in the delivery of legal services.

John Marshall Law School, Adjunct Professor from 2000 to 2012, developed and taught The Professional Responsibility of a Technological Law Practice and The Future of Law: Online Access to Justice in the JMLS Center for Information Technology LLM program.

EDUCATION & LICENSING
Admitted to the Illinois State Bar, October 1980
Admitted to the U.S. District Court, Northern Illinois, December 1980
DePaul University College of Law, J.D., June 1980.
Southern Illinois University, M.A. in Administration of Justice, 1977;
University of Illinois, Urbana, IL; B.A. in Sociology, 1973.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Lead author, An Analysis of Rules that Enable Lawyers to Serve Self-Represented Litigants, ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services, 2014

Contributor, Reinventing the Practice of Law: Emerging Models to Enhance Affordable Legal Services, Edited by Luz Herrera, ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services, 2014.

Perspective in Finding Personal Legal Services, ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services, 2011.

Gaming the System: Approaching 100% Access to legal Services through Online Games, 88 Chicago Kent Law Review 917 (2013).

Clashes of Class and Cash: Battles for the 150 Years War to Govern Client Development, 37 Ariz. St. U. Law J. 255 (2005).

Contributor, Final Report: ABA Presidential Commission on Access to Lawyers (July 21, 2003).

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
Ignite Talk on the History of Legal Services from 2018 to 2038 for the National Meeting of the State Access to Justice Commission Chairs.

Producer and panelist at the ABA/IAALS Conference on Better Access through Unbundling.

Keynote presentation, Access to Justice through Incubators and Non-profit Law Firms.

Producer and presenter, ABA Conference on Client-Centric Legal Services.

Presenter, Justice, Symposium on Lawyering and Legal Education in the Digital Age

Presenter, Gateways and Barriers to an Online Practice, American Prepaid Legal Services Institute

Panelist, Cyber Ethics and Electronic Angst, ABA TechShow