In 1996, when he launched The Future of Law, the British jurist Richard Susskind introduced important debates into the legal market, the effects of which, curiously, given the time, are still current, especially in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Susskind pointed, in summary, to three changes, considered to be radical in the performance of lawyers’ activities. It is true to say that these changes followed on from his other publications, such as Tomorrow’s Lawyers.
The first was what he calls the more-for-less or the more-for-less challenge, where legal demand grows at a greater and disproportionate scale compared to the market’s willingness and propensity to pay for legal services. As a way of balancing this, lawyers in general have started to invest more in automation, standardisation and systematisation, in addition to the development of cross-selling platforms between their clients.
The second, extravagant for the Portuguese model, is the liberalisation of legal practice, in the movement known as the Legal Services Act of 2007, which came into effect in 2011. ABS’s (Alternative Business Structure) were created, enabling external investment, private equity and venture capital for law firms. In the United Kingdom, the legislation was well received by the market, citing famous accountancy firms that sought to license themselves as ABSs. In other parts of the world, such as in the grandiose Brazilian market, this type of liberalisation is not envisaged.
The third movement for change, in turn, involves the use of technology. Susskind does not spare criticism for the sceptical behaviour of most lawyers, which he calls irrational rejectionism, a dogmatic and visceral rejection of a technology of which the sceptic does not even have experience. Although law itself takes longer to update, the technologies that serve as a platform for law are much faster, exponential, and it is the lawyer’s duty to anticipate this technological change.
The challenge, however, should no longer be focused solely on the automation of established legal practices, such as the use of software in general, since this has already become the rule in a market with strong symmetry, but rather on creating new practices, never considered possible until now. The British jurist cites more than ten new trends, among them the Legal Data Scientist, who is responsible for analysing data, identifying trends and patterns, both in legal content statistics and client strategies, in order to offer predictive solutions and no longer based on what he calls demand-pulled.
The aim, thus, is to encourage legal practitioners to pursue innovative practices. It is positive to insist on the belief that the company is encouraged not by the existence of its competitors, but by the needs of its clients, in the rescue of the old maxim of customer first. As the former editor of Wired Magazine, Kevin Kelli, states, there is no point in resisting. The way we shop, learn, communicate with each other will be completely (even more) revolutionised. What we can do, according to him, and faced with the inexorable path of innovation, is to understand and embrace them so that we increase the likelihood of benefiting from them.
It was a privilege, therefore, to welcome and hear British jurist Richard Susskind in Portugal, in the context of the second edition of Lisbon, Law & Tech discuss his latest book, Online Courts and the Future of Justice.
Watch the session:
