Law in the "Digital Age"
DRAFT DOCUMENT
Reimagining the legal ecosystem
The 2016 ‘Future of Law and Innovation in the Profession’ (FLIP), a landmark commission of inquiry by the Law Society of New South Wales, found that the legal profession is undergoing change at a pace never previously recorded, fuelled by the evolving expectations of clients and rapid advances in technology. Such advances include cloud computing, artificial intelligence, electronic document management systems, online dispute resolution, virtual law firms, electronic courts, social media and blockchain – just to mention a few.
Technology has upended predictable career paths and is recasting how, for whom, with whom, and on what terms many lawyers will work. It is influencing every segment of our legal ecosystem, from its workforce, the division of labour, economics, structure, and service providers, to skillsets, career trajectories; education and training, and customer expectations.
It is technology that facilitates our Optus Legal Team operating nationally allowing some of our lawyers to live and work away from our Sydney headquarters.
In short, technology is changing legal culture and what it means to be a lawyer. But how should that change be managed?
Driving meaningful change
We will always need good lawyers – but good lawyers today need to have a spectrum of other talents ignited by their legal skills. Good lawyers today must be first responders, problem solvers, project managers, counsellors, risk managers, change managers; all the time exercising judgment, legal expertise, and business acumen against an ever-changing and challenging landscape.
The ‘us and them’, the ‘lawyers and non-lawyers’ worldview that built lawyer silos is slowly being renovated by an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving – where diverse professional competencies, enabled by technology, solve complex business challenges.
This is the key. We must strive to leverage technology in a meaningful way, freeing ourselves from monotonous work to focus on more innovative and strategic work. We must identify which skills, old and new, will be required to adapt to the changes in law happening today, caused by a tricky mix of technology and human behaviour.
Luckily, our younger generations are well equipped to handle such a challenge. For them, technology is as natural as breathing. They know how to partner with technology in a way that supports – not hinders – collaboration, efficiency and creativity. They will play a critical role in humanising technology for those who are indifferent or insecure about the unknown.
Reproduced from an article
