Looking to the Future: A Review of Tomorrow’s Lawyers

In past columns, I have explored the provision of legal and claims resolution and the changes that are on the horizon. The impact of technology and the tightening economy are driving a lot of these changes, and we are only at the beginning of a new way of doing things.

In some ways, how lawyers currently practice law is the same as it was 30 or 40 years ago. Some technologies, such as word processing, computers, and email, have made lawyers moderately more efficient. However, the basic roles and tasks of lawyers in the conflict resolution industry are static. The perceptible changes that are occurring are often criticized and rebuffed by lawyers who, as a group, are slow to adapt. While many lawyers and claims professionals are trying simply to keep up with these changes, there are visionaries and prognosticators who are looking decades into the future; they are looking at a paradigm shift the likes of which has never occurred in the industry.

One of these visionaries is Richard Susskind—an author, speaker, and advisor on issues relating to technology and the practice of law. He is a graduate of the University of Glasgow and holds a doctorate of philosophy in computers and law from Balliol College at Oxford University. He has worked in the accounting and legal industries for decades as well as serving as a law professor for over 20 years. While he admits his track record of predictions is not 100 percent, he boasts that even his critics concede he has been right in his predictions more often than not over the past 25 years.

I recently picked up a copy of Susskind’s book Tomorrow’s Lawyers: An Introduction to Your Future, which was recommended to me by my colleague and CLM Member Dwayne Hermes of Hermes Sargent Bates in Dallas, Texas. With no apologies, Susskind attempts to predict a paradigm shift in the way legal services are provided, and he offers a bold level of detail in doing so. While some may hesitate to embrace every prediction, he forces attorneys, in-house lawyers, and claims professionals to think about how their practice will change in the very near future. Susskind further challenges his reader to get on board with the changes or be left behind.

The book begins by recapping three drivers of change in the dispute resolution industry—a term used broadly to encompass more than just legal work. In fact, Susskind argues that lawyers currently do work for which they are overqualified, billing lawyerly rates, which could be done, in part, at a lower cost by non-lawyers. Without giving them away in this column, these three drivers are essentially a recapitulation of his themes in three previous titles going back to 1996.

Susskind gives equal time and attention to both law firms and in-house legal departments. For law firms, he differentiates between bespoke legal work and routine legal services for routine and commonly recurring fact patterns. Bespoke work involves tailored legal solutions done by highly specialized and experienced lawyers in complex matters. Routine high-volume work is the target of change, according to Susskind, and he doesn’t just write about working for lower rates or even different billing arrangements. The challenge is to work differently. The lawyers who accept the change and adapt to the opportunity will be successful and grow; those who continue to work the same way will be left behind.

There is a challenge for in-house legal departments as well. Susskind is critical of the belief that it is more efficient to shift legal services that were once provided by outside firms to an in-house legal department. This is not working differently but really is just more of the same thing in a different setting. He discusses the internal drivers within businesses to which in-house counsel must respond. Lawyers and law firms will do well to understand this internal pressure and help in-house lawyers repackage their legal programs.

In fact, my favorite passage from the book is where Susskind addresses the importance of relationships and trust. Corporate legal departments will be more discerning than ever with the people they engage. There is a continued call to network both in-person and via other rapidly developing social systems. Trust is built with time and experience—that has never changed and, ultimately, never will, particularly when it comes to less routine and more complex matters.

He closes with comments directed to young lawyers. The changing job market ought to be of grave concern to anyone considering law school. Depending on whom you ask, law school applications are down as much as 50 percent in some places around the country compared with previous years. Legal jobs and the role of lawyers in the future certainly impact the decision for many to enter into the profession. It is with this backdrop that Susskind addresses the need for a paradigm shift in legal education as well. Young lawyers, on some level, will be the drivers of much change in the industry. Compared to older lawyers who are close to retirement, young lawyers have an incentive to embrace the concept of working differently if long-term survival is at stake.

If even a small portion of the predictions in the book come to fruition, it is worth picking up a copy and considering what the future may or may not hold for lawyers, clients, professionals, and in-house counsel.