Modern Law Magazine Issue 66

INDEPTH
INDEPTH
“I encourage all lawyers to seize the opportunities put before
them with both hands to create the future they want.”
We are living through a values revolution with societal issues such as
climate change & sustainable energy, diversity, equity and inclusion
and environmental, social responsibility and governance at the fore.
I spend a fair bit of time convincing people
that there is indeed a future for lawyers.
This includes the next generation of them.
I do this through a few different lens – as
a practising lawyer, law firm principal,
lecturer in law, business coach, speaker
and as a futurist.
I want to share with you my views
regarding what future may hold for the
next generation for lawyers, the culture
that lawyers will need to create, thrive in
and embrace, the skills they will need to
have and what their career expectations
might be expected to be.
Starting straight off the bat, I believe the
future of lawyering for the next generation
is a bright one.
This is of course a qualified view, one
being contingent upon lawyers continuing
to be as resilient, smart, and pivoting
when they need to be, as the successful
ones have done for decades now.
The “do nothing,” “everything will be
right” and “the world is ending” view
of the future of lawyering is no longer a
viable one.
In essence what I am saying here, is that
you are responsible for your own future
of law.
The Culture of the Future
Generation of Lawyering.
Let’s start off with legal services culture.
There is little doubt that lawyers will
need to continue to successfully navigate
what I call the cultural battle between
legacy and future, old versus new, push
versus pull in respect to the vast societal
changes that have and are occurring as
we speak post pandemic.
Nothing will return to the same as 2019,
everything else is up for grabs and capable
of transformation – legal practice included.
Look at the way that hybrid work and service
delivery is being redefined as we speak.
We are clearly different post pandemic and
have undergone and continue to undergo
a values revolution with respect to all
aspects of our lives. Lawyers are left and
centre of this – themselves personally and
through the impact on their clients and
the firms they operate within. Diversity,
equity and inclusion and environmental,
social responsibility and governance are no
longer trendy buzz words of the moment.
These are no simple issues but ones that
will play out over the next 3-5-10 years,
then determining how legal services are
delivered into the future.
“I believe the future of lawyering for
the next generation is a bright one.”
The Next Generation
Legal Market
Everything post pandemic takes longer,
is more complicated, more contentious,
difficult, and a lot of times has no simple
answers attached to its solutions. These may
be challenges but they are also opportunities
for lawyers to be front and centre.
The lawyer is the “go to person”, the trusted
advisor and the ethical legal influencer of
the modern post pandemic client – again
providing more opportunities for lawyers
who know how to market, brand and sell
their services as well as provide these better,
quicker and for more bang for dollar.
The Myth of Technology
Supplanting Lawyers
It has annoyed me over many years now
when I hear hype such as “the robots
are coming...and they will replace all
the lawyers!”. There is no chance that
lawyers will ever be completely replaced
by technology – be it Generative AI or
otherwise.
The key word here, is of course
“completely”.
Will there be substantial changes along
the way? The answer is invariably yes.
These changes will invariably continue to
affect all lawyers and parts of all lawyers’
jobs, whether they like it or not.
I ask you to look at the second order
effects that are occurring in society for
guidance regarding change and growth.
Take digitalisation as an example, as
more aspects of life move online, new
challenges have arisen out of things
such as data privacy to cybersecurity
to cybercrime. This has led to a surge
in demand for lawyers in these areas,
creating whole new niches. It has also
changed fundamentally the way we
practise law digitally and online each day.
There is a myriad of megatrends that
will enact second order effects that
lawyers will be the “go to” person for.
Watch this space.
AI’s Role in Future Generation
Legal Practice
The elephant in the room is AI.
My view is that yes, Generative AI is
and will continue to take “some” parts
of lawyers’ jobs, parts that lawyer will
quite possibly welcome them taking –
being some of the routine, repetitive,
mundane and the unfulfilling. It assists
with the better, faster and cheaper client
expectation of lawyers.
Apart from that, Generative AI currently
is at best augmented side by side
technology, which will get better and
better as it is “stuffed” into everything
lawyers do.
The Evolution of the Future
Generation Lawyer’s Role
The action for lawyers and where the future
of lawyering ultimately lies, is with clients.
Both existing and new ones, known and
emerging. Servicing them in new innovative
ways, branding to them, and marketing to
their needs, and ultimately selling value in
real and dollar terms for things they did not
even know they wanted or needed or that
lawyers could deliver.
The lawyer of tomorrow will need to be
able to make it “rain” more than ever as
Generative AI will redefine the law firm
food chain.
Lawyers need the confidence to
leverage both their legal knowledge and
experience into their client’s business
and those who can add value beyond
their existing legal set of skills will be
indispensable to their clients.
The trusted advisor, ethic legal influencer
and “go to” person roles that lawyers
have become post pandemic should be
capitalised upon.
Emerging Areas in Next
Generation Legal Practice
New areas of legal practice will continue
to open at scale along with an increasingly
complex society.
Blockchain, cryptocurrencies and AI are
“established” emerging areas of legal
practice that were almost non-existent five
or six years ago.
Watch autonomous vehicles, the
metaverse, green technology and
neurotechnology to name a few.
Looking at technology compliance and
accountability, we can already see the
scale of legal advice (and litigation)
increasing with the ever-increasing
regulatory and societal scrutiny.
This also does not deviate from the
enormous amount of technology that is
also already implicit within each area of
existing legal practice (and that the lawyer
needs to be au fait with).
All of these are creating more legal work
and scope for lawyers.
Essential Skills for Next
Generation Lawyers
We are living through a values revolution
with societal issues such as climate change
& sustainable energy, diversity, equity
and inclusion and environmental, social
responsibility and governance at the fore.
All these are firstly complex issues, that
society will require legal advice and
secondly require different skills and
mindsets to navigate in legal practice.
The lawyer of the next generation
therefore needs more:
• emotional intelligence
• social awareness
• commercial awareness
• of an agile mindset
• curiosity
• future thinking focus.
• to be more collaborative.
• network better than ever.
Conclusion
I encourage all lawyers to seize the
opportunities put before them with both
hands to create the future they want.
The alternative of throwing your hands
up in despair, is not a viable, healthy, or
quite frankly realistic alternative.
Paul Ippolito can be contacted
through the website
www.paulippolito.com.au.
Paul Ippolito,
Futurist and Lawyer, Ippolito Lawyers.
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