This archive report was first published on 24 September 2019.
On a recent visit to the Slaughter & May's 8th annual Practical and Legal Exchange African Symposium (PLEASe) dinner at the Ironmongers Hall in central London, I had the opportunity to deliver a keynote address on the future of legal education and practice.
The hall was beautifully arranged for the occasion, with dimmed lights and candlesticks adorning the tables. The audience was silent and attentive, much like the students at Hogwarts School of Wizardry.
As I began to speak, I emphasized that the future of law practice is uncertain, with various ideas, projections, and prognostics conflicting with each other. However, one thing is clear: change is inevitable, and law practice will undergo significant transformations.
Developed countries have a stable rule of law, but developing countries like ours face a different reality. Our justice system is unpredictable, imperfect, and expensive, making it a fertile ground for innovation.
Young law students and graduates are creating amazing ventures, such as BarefootLaw.org, WakiliApp, and innovation spaces like the LawyersHub. They are not afraid of numbers, codes, and formulas, and are becoming more daring in their pursuit of innovation.
Change is about to happen, and civil and criminal procedure will become less complicated, IT-compliant, user-friendly, faster, and cheaper. Paper-based lawyers will be replaced by high-techies, and judicial cartels will need to upgrade to survive.
Blockchain technology, big data, the internet of things, data harvesting, smart-contracts, and digital twins will reshape the real estate business, conveyancing, mergers and acquisitions, financial services law, and even civil and criminal liability.
As we move into this new era, law firms will need to redefine themselves, and lawyers will need to change the way they invoice clients, charge fees, make money, and structure their law firms. Partners in new generation law firms will no longer be just lawyers, but will also include IT specialists, designers, engineers, and finance gurus.
Regulators will need to adapt to this new reality and encourage change, rather than trying to regulate the past. The time has come to ask regulators to drive change, rather than chasing it from behind.
The challenges ahead are fascinating, and only innovators and lateral thinkers will be ahead of the pack. The road ahead is unclear, but one thing is certain: the face of law practice and teaching will never be the same again.
