Gordon J. MacDonald believes the justice system fails the people it serves. Day after day, the New Hampshire Supreme Court chief justice says he, like many working in state courts, sees that more than 90% of those in court for issues like domestic violence, small claims and divorce do not have lawyers.

“What we are doing is not working,” he says.

Those staggering unmet legal needs motivated MacDonald to chair the Committee on Legal Education and Admissions Reform, a group established by the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators. In 18 months, CLEAR’s executive team—including four other state justices and with MacDonald leading the charge—traveled the country to participate in 90 interviews with stakeholders, surveyed more than 4,000 judges, 4,400 attorneys and 600 law students, along with holding 12 listening sessions and held a national convening of stakeholders. Discussions covered issues ranging from the lack of rural lawyers to the pressures law schools face from rankings and accreditation standards.

Other proposed changes include implementing state-level strategies to improve practice readiness, encouraging law school accreditation that serves the public, reducing the reliance on law school rankings, supporting public service attorneys and encouraging rural practice—all with the state supreme courts leading the way.

The result is the CLEAR report published in July; a document many legal education experts say has teeth. “He has challenged a lot of conventional institutions, challenged the law schools, challenged the accreditation process,“ says Mike Buenger, who retired in October as executive vice president of the National Center for State Courts. He describes MacDonald as “totally sincere in his pursuit of improving the courts and, by extension, the justice system for all.”

New Mexico Supreme Court Justice C. Shannon Bacon agrees. “He would not label himself a rebel in a million years, but he is somebody who is willing to plainly identify problems and plainly seek solutions,” he says. “He has specific ideas about what that change should look like but not to the exclusion of the opinions and needs of different cohorts. That’s what makes him a rebel.”

While MacDonald is relieved to have the report finished, this is no “one and done” group. The committee will continue, with MacDonald leading. Next, he says, they will address issues like the portability of licensure from states with innovative pathways.

“You need to break down silos, impediments,” he says, “and that can be hard.”

His interest in legal education and licensure stems from his days in private practice at Nixon Peabody, when he chaired the New Hampshire Board of Bar Examiners. He also sat on the National Conference of Bar Examiners. The crying need for access to justice motivated him to become his state’s chief justice in 2021 after serving four years as its attorney general.

“I still feel an urgency around these issues,” he says. “I pledge I am going to continue to bring that sense of urgency to this task. We need to work together. We need to be better.”