Learn to adapt to change or die

Legal institutions and lawyers are at crossroads and are poised to change more radically over the next two decades than they have over the last two centuries.
If you are a young lawyer, this revolution will happen on your watch. ‘Young’ should be construed broadly, applying to law students who are contemplating a job in law firms,  through to newly promoted partners in firms who are wondering how their careers might unfold.
The future of legal service is neither Grisham nor Rumpole. Nor is it wigs, wood-paneled courtrooms, leather-bound tomes, or arcane legal jargon. It will not even be the dominant model of lawyering, which is face-to-face, consultative professional service by advisers who meet clients in their offices, whether glitzy or dusty, and dispense tailored counsel. To meet the needs of clients, we will need instead to dispense with much of our current legal industry and reinvent the way in which legal services are delivered.
Just as other professions are undergoing massive upheaval, then the same must now happen in law. Indeed, it is already happening. The bespoke specialist who handcrafts solutions for clients will be challenged by new working methods, characterised by lower labour costs, mass customisation, recyclable legal knowledge, pervasive use of IT, and more.
Six years ago before I had joined law school a few students gave much thought to what the future might hold for the legal profession. We took it for granted that the work of lawyers in, say,  five years time, would be much as it was then. It transpires what we thought would be the mode of working has quickly changed with the coming of Covid-19. In contrast, in looking 10 years ahead from now, I argue it would be absurd to expect lawyers and courts to carry on operating as they do now. If only because of the inexorable rise in the power and uptake of IT—to pick one of several drivers of change—we must surely expect something manifestly more than modest adjustment.
The legal market is in an unprecedented state of flux. Over the next two decades or so, the way in which lawyers work will change radically. Entirely new ways of delivering legal services will emerge, new providers will enter the market, and the workings of our courts will be transformed. Unless they adapt, many traditional legal businesses will fail. On the other hand, a whole set of fresh opportunities will present themselves to entrepreneurial and creative young lawyers. I believe there will be three main drivers of change: the ‘more-for-less’ challenge, liberalisation, and information technology. Other commentators may point to different factors, such as shifting demography and increasing globalisation.  I do not deny that such factors are significant but my specific focus here is on the changes that we will see in the way in which legal services are delivered; if what I gather is true, three drivers are the ones to watch for.
Klieve Tumwebaze        
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