How will law practice change when this is all over?
The Above the Law legal news site takes a look at how law practice and the legal system will change once the pandemic ends. Written from a US perspective by @BobAmbrogi with some global references, the article contains basic principles with which we agree. Below are some of its key points with our thoughts.
1. Lawyers will no longer see technology as something to be feared.
In a matter of a month, any lawyers who still harbored fears of technology have of necessity come to see it as a lifeline to the survival of their practices and their continuing ability to serve their clients. Going forward, that will fundamentally reshape the legal profession’s use and adoption of technology.
While we agree with this, it may not go far enough. Components to a lawyer’s competence include effectiveness in interacting with clients, communicating in a timely and effective manner, performing activities effectively, all in a cost-effective manner. Technology already plays an important role, via everything from email, client portals, practice-specific software, etc. With advanced algorithms, developments in blockchain and artificial intelligence, that role will only increase.
The Relationship To Clients chapter of the Codes of Conduct in the law societies of many Canadian jurisdictions include some form of technological competence requirements. (For brevity’s sake we’re only including excerpts from the Federation of Law Societies of Canada Interactive Model Code.)
[4A] To maintain the required level of competence, a lawyer should develop an understanding of, and ability to use, technology relevant to the nature and area of the lawyer's practice and responsibilities.
FLSC Interactive Model Code
Competence Section 3.1.2
It could be argued that not only should a lawyer develop an understanding of technology, technological fluency is a requirement for the effective delivery of legal services.
2. Lawyers will no longer see innovation as a threat to the ‘guild.’
A rigidly structured guild system of courts and services delivery, designed by lawyers for lawyers as their exclusive domain, is not up to meeting the challenges of a world that demands agility and flexibility in services delivery.
We’re actually seeing lawyers across the country who take the opposite view on innovation. Rather than fearing it as a threat, they’re embracing the possibilities inherent in the whole host of tools that new technologies are providing them. As the proportion of lawyers who are digital natives continues to increase, so too will their demands of technology.
And if they feel there’s a gap in the tools available, this generation of lawyers are more likely to take a hands on approach to meet their unmet needs.
3. Regulatory reform will accelerate.
5. More legal services will be delivered remotely and online.
The cat may be out of the bag and the genie out of the bottle on this one. Either way, with special dispensations being granted in various Canadian provinces to allow remote commissioning in the areas of wills signing and remote property transactions, it may be too late to put the genie back into the bag. Or was it the cat back into the bottle?
In a greater sense, we’ve also seen the rise of a digital economy which disintermediates the buying process of traditionally regulated services. The most obvious examples being Airbnb and Uber who have achieved incredible levels of success, even in the face of significant regulatory challenges. What this proves is that no service, no matter how heavily regulated, is permanently immune to digital disruption when an innovator delivers that service in a manner that better suits consumer demands.
7. Legal education will be revamped.
In certain respects, we’re already in the midst of this reformation. The Law Practice Programs at Ryerson University and the University of Ottawa were created to meet unmet needs. Beyond that, law schools will need to realize, if they haven’t already, the importance of incorporating technology and innovation into their curricula.
If we can help students understand that… AI [artificial intelligence] can create a much more streamlined, efficacious means of connecting lawyers to consumers, and reorient or recalibrate what it means to provide legal services by lawyers, then that’s an enormous benefit for us as legal educators…
DANIEL B. RODRIGUEZ, DEAN
NORTHWESTERN PRITZKER SCHOOL OF LAW
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