Director of LegalRnD, Daniel Linna Jr., who is also an assistant dean for Career Development and a professor of law in residence, said the center is looking to edge the law profession past its century-old roots. He said the mission is to change the outlook of the legal profession, which is facing a smaller number of jobs and less students enrolling in law schools.

Linna sees the center as a way to bring law into the 21st century, one of the first of its kind in the nation. It sets itself up as a curriculum and research center, although the curriculum is not yet mandated by the university in its law program. 

Legal services have become expensive to the point that people with low to moderate income are unable to afford the legal services they need, Linna said.

"We really want to do the research and development to improve legal service delivery so more people have access to legal services," he said. 

According to the World Justice Project, the United States lags behind other developed nations when it comes to access to civil justice. 

"There's a lot of pressure in the legal industry to change and to do a better job at serving the public," he said.

One of the ways Linna said the profession can be helped includes an increased use of technology and new media. He pointed to services like LegalZoom as good places to start.

Although the job market for law has been poor since the last recession, it has started to bounce back, although not yet to the degree where it started. And although the industry has a long way to go, Linna believes it's made significant progress since he first brought up these ideas in the profession only a few years ago. 

"Many more lawyers recognize that things do need to change," he said. "There's still a lot that needs to be done. There's still resistance to change, but I think it's accelerating and this is impacting a lot of lawyers."