Interview with Susskind about new edition of "The End of Lawyers?"

13
Sep
2010

Rob Ameerun

Susskind publishes new ways of thinking about the practice of law

This month, a new paperback edition of Richard Susskind’s last book “The End of Lawyers?” will be published. A good reason for Legal IT professionals to interview Susskind and ask him about the current status of the legal industry. Today part 1, about the new paperback edition, embracing change, and the impact of the global financial crisis on law firms.

The new edition of “The End of Lawyers? “will provide an update of what happened in the legal field since the original manuscript of the book was submitted and will also introduce some of Susskind’s new ideas, new ways of thinking about the practice of law. “No new findings” Susskind says, “it's more to do with providing tools to practitioners who want to try and change their law firms.  What I found two, three and more years ago is that most of my time was spent trying to convince lawyers that a change was likely and change was necessary.  And I've now got to the stage, I believe, when I speak with senior lawyers, that they accept that the legal profession is changing, and now they want more practical help rather than theoretical discussion about the future.  So in a sense my period as an evangelist for change is coming to an end, and the kinds of ideas I'm publishing in the paperback edition, resemble more the kinds of ideas that I put to clients when I'm acting as a consultant to a firm on a one-on-one basis.

Susskind says it would be wrong to suggest that the entire profession has embraced change, but “enough of the kinds of individuals who come to me from imaginative firms are now asking a different set of questions.  Originally it was: why should we change, what are the pressures in the market place, what are you seeing in other professions, what's the role of technology, and so forth.  Now people are saying: we really need to over the next five years perhaps to transform our practice, give us some help, give us some guidance, give us some tools to help effect that organisational change.  So one of the tools, for example, is quite simply a matrix, and I won't go into detail now because it's not yet published, but it's a matrix that helps people plot the kind of work they do onto a model which will help them think what form of service is best appropriate for them.  So it really has to do with people taking a step back, looking at what they do and thinking what's the most efficient and effective way in the marketplace to deliver that service?  So give them a structure, a framework, within which to do that analysis.  That's the first one.“

“And the second one is, I'm suggesting there's four types of legal business in the future, four structures for models for legal businesses of the future.  And it's actually, that's less to do with law firms and more to do with practice areas within law firms, because I've come quite firmly to the view that different parts of law firms have entirely different requirements.  Often law firms are made up of seven or eight radically diverse kinds of businesses, and each has to strategise, each has to plan its future on its own.  They come together as one firm, but their own needs I think are quite diverging, very often.”

The global financial crisis forced law firm management to take a thorough look at their firms. Susskind believes that the crisis was a catalyst for change: “It brought about change that might otherwise have taken a decade, instead it happened over a period of about 18 months.  And I belong to the school that believes, by and large, that there's no way back, that the kinds of efficiencies, the kinds of new ways of working, the kinds of demands that clients have made of law firms, are here to stay.  I don't think it's the case that when the global economy returns, law firms, and in-house lawyers, can easily go back to the old ways of working.”

In spite of the fact that law firms are not amongst the most rapid firms to accept and introduce new technology and other changes, Susskind thinks it is not too late to start now. “generally I think it's true that the legal profession, as compared for example with the accounting world, has been slow to embrace new technology and still frankly will be inclined to resist innovation rather than embrace it.  It's never too late, though.  It seems to me what happens is that some innovative firms tend to invest earlier and tend to benefit from these earlier investments and others catch up.  Never too late with one qualification, what we're seeing in the UK is a deregulation, a liberalisation of the market which will soon allow other players, other forms of legal businesses, to compete.  And I think that does present a real challenge.”

But there is a second challenge Susskind continues, “alternative ways of sourcing legal work, whether that be outsourcing or offshoring or sub-contracting or computerising, the general theme is that the traditional way, in my view, of undertaking the more routine and repetitive legal work in the law office is under challenge.

Part two of the interview, where Susskind talks about social media and Legal IT software suppliers, can be found here.