The Dinosaur Lawyer

My son is 16. I have always hoped that he would become an engineer or an astronaut or build the first flying car, but at the start of lockdown he told us he wanted to be a lawyer.

 My heart sank.

I am a lawyer. I have been a lawyer for over 25 years. I love my job but when my son told me he wanted to be a lawyer, I panicked.

The world’s most-cited author on the future of legal services, Richard Susskind, OBE, is famously quoted as saying: “If you’re studying law now, stop!”. McKinsey estimates that 23% of work done by lawyers today can be automated by existing technology. Gartner predicts that one in three jobs will be converted to software, robots, and smart machines by 2025. And there is often talk in legal publications of the rise of the Lawyerbot.

The legal profession around the world is in a state of flux. It is changing dramatically because of the disruption brought about by artificial intelligence and big data. Tasks that use to be done by lawyers are being done by technology. Forms-driven practices are in real trouble; the drafting of simple legal documents and uncontested filings are now regularly handled by non-lawyers. Advances in technology allow modern software to analyse documents, streamline communications, draft contracts, and find relevant casework for lawyers. Tasks that use to take us weeks, months, are now being completed in days, hours. We are being commoditized. 

Even the court room is moving online, using digital technology for case management and e-filing. Mr. Susskind muses in an interview with Bernard Marr that it is entirely conceivable that we will soon have systems that can predict the outcome of court cases based on past decisions using predictive analytics…there must be more than a few litigators under their desks in the foetal position.

So, is my son joining a dying profession?

Apparently, no, and here is why:

Although technology is driving key processes for legal providers such as contract management and automation, knowledge and information management and document management, it is only a tool facilitating a task, it cannot be relied upon to carry out the entire task (yet). Technology can greatly enhance the quality of the information available to lawyers, but it cannot ask questions or consider specific context or situations. Lawyerbots can never be a substitute for the judgment, legal common sense, instincts, comprehension, and decision-making skills critical to being a good lawyer.  

We are in the middle of a legal evolution and traditional lawyers like me will need to change. We will have to embrace technology, automate our traditional ways of working and upskill ourselves to ensure we do not become extinct. 

If used correctly, digital technologies can bolster the strategies employed by lawyers to obtain and review information and significantly improve the quality of the services we deliver. By automating tasks that are generally time consuming and generic, we can deliver considerable cost-savings to our clients and be more efficient and competitive. Technology can help lawyers make better and faster decisions, and improve our skills, abilities, and expertise. 

Globalization and new digital technologies have improved the access of clients to information and their ability to find competitive alternatives to their legal advisers. This is contributing to a dramatic shift in the demand and supply of legal services, from a lawyer-centric market dominated by traditional law firms to a client-centric market. Clients are tech-savvy and want added value through technology and data. They need their legal advisers to take the lead and use innovation to focus on the client experience, establishing priorities that matter to their individual needs such as transparency in matter management and pricing, increased collaboration and added value services including legal project management and business analysis. It is no longer enough to restructure existing services at a reduced cost. Clients want more for less, not the same for less.   

It is also no longer acceptable for commercial legal departments to be a passive legal support function. In-house lawyers are required to deliver legal services in a way that maximises the value of the business, delivering services that produce a return on investment that either drives more revenue or reduces costs, ultimately ensuring a better bottom line for the whole business.

There is a growing number of non-traditional legal services providers entering the legal market including Alternative Legal Service Providers (ALSPs), the Big Four and Legal Tech that have comfortably adopted technology-based tools and solutions to produce alternative legal services. The ALSPs, in particular, are listening to the needs of clients and producing service and product offerings that will enable law firms and commercial legal departments to restructure their own services in accordance with the changing requirements of their clients and the businesses they support. 

The bottom line; law firms and legal departments that are realising the long-term potential of technology such as AI, e-discovery, smart contracts, cognitive computing, machine learning, blockchain, cloud-computing, smart contracts, chatbots and robot process automation, and embracing the growing legal tech industry and the services provided by ALSPs will be future proof. 

And, the really good news is that my son can still become an engineer. Lawyers of the future will not study Political Science or Accounting or French or the History of Art before going to law school, they will study engineering or data science, they will be legal knowledge engineers, system developers, experts in design thinking. Tomorrow’s lawyers will pioneer the technologies that will enable businesses to think beyond conventional risk, liability, and mitigation strategies to protect and accelerate the growth of their business. They will build the systems that solve legal and commercial problems…and they will practice law.

My youngest son wants to become an astrophysicist…they build flying cars, don’t they?