A Chicago Bar Association task force focused on reforms to the profession released on Wednesday recommendations that include allowing lawyers to partner with intermediary organizations to handle business tasks and connect to consumers, but the group stopped short of endorsing outside ownership of law firms.

The Task Force on the Sustainable Practice of Law and Innovation—a joint initiative of the CBA and the Chicago Bar Foundation, its access-to-justice-oriented charitable arm—is the first bar group in the United States with a voluntary membership to enter into the contentious discussion about regulatory reform, after courts and mandatory bar groups in California, Utah and Arizona have issued their own sets of recommendations.