The dynamism of business, the pace of social change and human adaptability are challenging for law firms to keep up with. Yet, many are finding a way by working with the idea of “law new.” This isn’t a concept confined to a specific practice area or type of client. It’s a broad one that encompasses new ways of working, legal tech and collaboration across law firm walls and with clients.
The definition of “law new” is a bit elusive but generally, it refers to law that’s not merely evolutionary but revolutionary. It’s a change process that shifts an industry paradigm from a service model to a customer-centric one. It’s a journey that’s being driven by technology, data and human adaptation.
Historically, the legal industry has been an insular one that is reluctant to embrace customer-centric principles. Instead, the industry has focused on efficiency and profit preservation — not producing innovation that would serve its customers better.
But now, a new breed of law firms is leading the way with customer-centric innovation. They’re redefining what the law is, who it serves and how they deliver it. The future of the legal profession depends on whether its leaders embrace this paradigm change and work with it or resist it.
In the past, firms that embraced the idea of “law new” sought to cut salaries, reduce full-time staff and operate from less expensive locations. Today, the focus is on what’s being created by the change process — not on how to cut costs.
For example, large law firms now collaborate with each other and with in-house legal departments on a variety of projects that leverage technology, multidisciplinary expertise (“non-lawyers”) and integration. This is good delivery hygiene but it’s not true innovation that drives customer impact and enhances the end-user experience.
New law also includes a variety of legal initiatives that are being driven by the need to better protect the privacy and security of personal information and other sensitive data. These include the creation of specialized teams to manage data breaches and to work with the City’s Office of Cyber Command and other partners to prevent cyber incidents and respond to them when they occur. It also includes the development of a database that will allow the City to quickly share private identifying information in response to public requests.
In addition, the City is adopting Local Laws to increase penalties for keeping or selling force-fed animals, require open captioning in movie theaters and create automated employment decision tools. The City is also implementing changes to its data breach laws to make them consistent with the requirements of the SHIELD Act.
