In an effort to close the gap in civil disputes, the State Bar of California – the agency that licenses and regulates attorneys – recently released two recommendations. One would allow software companies to market tech platforms for self-resolution of legal disputes such as divorce. The other would license a new category of legal paraprofessionals with less legal training than attorneys or paralegals and allow them to practice law without attorney supervision, which is something paralegals can’t do.

After 15 years providing free legal services to clients with low incomes, I know the barriers to justice in California. I also know the pitfalls of allowing unregulated industries to exploit vulnerable Californians for profit. By inviting Californians to waste good money on bad legal services, the State Bar is dignifying a failure of justice we should all be fighting.

The State Bar is alarmingly off target because its recommendations ignore two of the biggest findings from its own “ Justice Gap” study . Most Californians don’t know when a problem is a legal problem. And, many have concerns about the cost of legal representation. These are tremendous issues impacting our legal system, and they remain unaddressed by the State Bar.

Technology can be a helpful tool to increase access to the courts. Developed through a collaboration of attorneys, a range of organizations and UCLA’s School of Public Affairs, the online Tenant Power Toolkit assists tenants with legal documents and connects them to legal help. However, allowing tech companies and venture capitalists to turn justice into a profit-making scheme is not legal innovation. Their cost of doing business will be too steep to offer affordable legal services for families on the margins.

Just as someone representing themselves in court is no match for an attorney, retaining a paraprofessional is also a gamble. Paraprofessionals would have restrictions on court appearances, which ignores the crucial stage where legal assistance is most needed and entrenches the current inequity in our courts – self-represented litigants vs. an attorney.

Even worse, both of the State Bar’s recommendations threaten the integrity of our legal system by allowing the provision of legal services by tech companies and paraprofessionals without legal expertise while exempting them from the ethical and fiduciary requirements governing attorney-client relationships. This startling omission reveals consumer welfare is merely an afterthought.

State lawmakers and Attorney General Rob Bonta have criticized the State Bar’s recommendations because it’s clear they will deepen the divides in our legal system. Alternatives that actually increase access to justice – including the expansion of online hearings, digital court records for convenient access, and sliding-scale fee legal services by provisionally licensed attorneys and attorney-supervised paraprofessionals – must be considered.

Innovative methods to close the justice gap are sorely needed, which is why legal service organizations push for increased access to justice through proposals like electronic court services, increased funding for legal aid and a right to counsel in civil matters such as guardianship and eviction, regardless of a person’s income. A coalition of 24 legal service organizations outlined several alternatives and improvements for the State Bar to consider.

As we see it, the more attorneys and advocates working on family law issues, evictions, elder law, wage disputes and guardianship, the better.

Ultimately, the State Bar’s recommendations invite disaster for consumers who are least able to recover from substandard legal services – seniors, non-native English speakers and low-income communities of color. Vulnerable Californians need justice, and they deserve an equal shot instead of being set up to fail.

Lorraine López is a senior attorney at the Western Center on Law and Poverty.

Lorraine López | Contributed

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Mr. Gordon stated, “I am excited for this opportunity to invest in the launching of a new commercial bank headquartered in and focused on serving the diverse business and commercial real estate needs of Southern California.  As the banking industry experiences ongoing consolidation and dislocation, the market serving diverse communities, small to mid-sized businesses, and owners, operators, and investors in income producing multifamily and commercial real estate, continues to grow, especially during this critical time when the economy, at both the local and national level, recovers from the pandemic driven recession.”

Mr. Gordon added, “As the lead investor and Founding Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Genesis Bank (In Organization), my investment is deeply rooted in my desire to make an immediate and meaningful impact on the widely diverse business owners, entrepreneurs, real estate investors, and businesses within our local Southern California market area of Los Angeles County, Orange County, and the Inland Empire. It’s gratifying to have so many other great investors and leaders in the business community recognize the need and share my vision.”

Mr. Chernyshov, Co-Founder of Arkview Capital, stated, “We are excited to back Stephen H. Gordon and his highly experienced team given their exceptional track records in building and operating multi-billion dollar financial institutions. During the pandemic, we saw the need for an institution like Genesis Bank (In Organization) to provide access to financial services to the low- to moderate-income, diverse communities in Southern California, the second largest market demographic in the U.S. Our investment carries an important positive multiplier effect on our capital and the local economy by supporting affordable and workforce housing and small and mid-sized businesses in Southern California.”

Mr. Gordon concluded, “My relationship with the Arkview principals dates back to 2010 when we acquired and capitalized Opus Bank. Over the years, we have maintained a great relationship, and I’m incredibly excited to continue our partnership as we launch Genesis Bank (In Organization).”

Piper Sandler & Co. acted as an advisor to Genesis Bank (In Organization). Holland & Knight LLP served as legal counsel.  Carpenter & Company served as consultants. Greenberg Traurig LLP acted as legal counsel to Arkview Capital.

About Genesis Bank (In Organization)

Genesis Bank (In Organization) is a proposed California-chartered, non-member de novo commercial bank being organized by a group of highly experienced and successful bankers and business professionals.  Genesis Bank (In Organization) will focus on serving the banking needs of small to mid-sized businesses, and owners and investors of income-producing multifamily and commercial real estate, located primarily in Orange and Los Angeles counties, California, as well as the western portions of the Inland Empire (Riverside and San Bernardino counties). Genesis Bank (In Organization) is powered by GenTeck^TM, a groundbreaking combination of best-in-class technologies, which are tightly integrated to give clients a seamless, digital first, and transparent experience featuring end-to-end straight through processing to access lending, depository, and cash management solutions. Genesis Bank’s (In Organization) products, services, and solutions will primarily include traditional commercial business, Small Business Administration (SBA), income property, and owner-occupied commercial real estate (industrial, retail, office) loan and deposit products, as well as treasury management services and solutions. Genesis Bank (In Organization) will also provide fiduciary banking, escrow, and section 1031 exchange services to serve the banking needs of its clients.  Genesis Bank (In Organization) is headquartered in Newport Beach, California.

About Gordon Ventures, LLC

Gordon Ventures, LLC is the organizing entity on behalf of Genesis Bank (In Organization).

About Arkview Capital

Arkview Capital is a minority-certified private equity fund focused on investing in diversity-oriented businesses. As a Minority Business Enterprise (“MBE”) certified by the National Minority Supplier Development Council, Arkview believes that companies aligned with their diverse customer base will outperform long-term. Arkview provides capital to businesses serving diverse communities, partners with diverse founders, and promotes diversity within procurement and supply chains of leading Fortune 1000 companies. 

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Every now and then I wonder about the cultural historians who will have to — presumably straight-faced — write a history of the past few years in America. A little over a year ago, I wrote a column for this very website about the death of Mr. Peanut: the monocle-sporting Planter’s Peanuts mascot (his death, it turned out, was greatly exaggerated). I thought at the time we’d reached the nadir of late modernity. I was wrong. The latest cultural outcry concerns Mr. Potato Head. T

he toy company Hasbro’s minor rebranding of Mr. Potato Head to the more gender-neutral Potato Head — in part to allow for a broader and more inclusive variety of Mr., Mrs. and gender-unspecified potato products — was swiftly greeted by Twittering conservatives as another Horseman of the Cultural Apocalypse: woke progressives so intent on abolishing the gender construct that not even a beloved children’s toy could be allowed to retain his title. Mark Dice, a YouTube conspiracy theorist and pundit, complained that “Mr. Potato Head has been canceled.”

Radio host Erick Erickson attributed the change to the demands of “Woke-o Haram,” punning on the African Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram, and Ben Shapiro joked that Mr. Potato Head might next identify as a squash. After the initial outcry on Twitter, Hasbro was quick to emphasize that it was not, in fact, canceling Mr. Potato Head, tweeting: “While it was announced today that the POTATO HEAD brand name & logo are dropping the ‘MR.’ I yam proud to confirm that MR. & MRS. POTATO HEAD aren’t going anywhere and will remain MR. & MRS. POTATO HEAD.”

Inclusivity was part of the point, but the primary reason for the change seems to be Hasbro’s hope to expand the Potato Head franchise beyond Mr. and Mrs. to a whole universe of potato people. No doubt, they were happy for the publicity, bad and good: The LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD praised the move, saying, “Hasbro is helping kids to simply see toys as toys, which encourages them to be their authentic selves outside of the pressures of traditional gender norms.” Surreal as it may seem, the drama over Potato Head’s gender gets more surreal when we consider that the increasingly ridiculous narrative of “culture wars” is profitable. Profitable for Hasbro, as people are thinking (and talking) about Mr. Potato Head for the first time in decades.

Profitable for the media ecosystem, which lit up with all the hot takes about how woke culture is killing childhood and about how representation in children’s toys is the first step into wider gender equality. “Woke capitalism” — the mashup of corporate interests and social-justice language for the purposes of cornering a prestigious, progressive millennial market — is an established phenomenon. The culture wars have long since transformed from a battle of moral hunger on both sides into a clash of commodification. Our substacks, our cable and streaming shows, what tote bags we sport or where we shop for groceries have become our political and social identities. The online culture war, with its manufactured “sides” (each producing publicity and clicks for the companies at its center), allow us to outsource our need for human connection, for moral certainty, for justice and ontological stability in this broken world.

In the same way that, for example, violent video games allow us to outsource and aestheticize our hunger for violence, the vicissitudes of the culture-wars machine allow us to outsource the fulfillment of our moral hunger: participating, via liking and retweeting, in a simulacrum of moral community. The reimagining of Potato Head — and the outcry that comes along with it — speaks to the heart of what’s wrong with us all in 2021: We are so starved of spiritual imagination that we turn to our cultural products to tell us spiritual stories.

Our manufactured discourse, no less than an anthropomorphic potato, is a game of fantasy and pretend.

Tara Isabella Burton • Contributed

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