Law new is a term that describes how the practice of law is being transformed to better serve the needs of clients, the profession and society at large. It entails collaborating across the legal industry to deliver services with more flexibility and responsiveness than has traditionally been seen in traditional law firms. It includes the use of technology and a more process oriented approach. It also combines the use of a wide variety of experts, including non lawyers, to support the delivery of legal services.
This is a dynamic and rapidly evolving area of legal practice. It involves collaborating with outside providers, developing legal products that serve more than one client, and creating strategies that have never before been seen in the practice of law. It often involves working with underserved communities and exploring alternative fee arrangements to enable more people to get access to the kind of help they need. It also entails looking at the ways in which legal services are delivered and identifying areas that can be streamlined to provide more value for less cost.
The term is used by the ABA and others to refer to a new paradigm in legal practice that will see legal services provided in more flexible, agile and on-demand ways. It is about a change in the way that legal services are delivered to businesses and individuals, which will enable them to address problems and capture opportunities at the speed of business and society at large. The legal industry will become more closely aligned with the businesses and societies that it serves and its workforce will be more diverse, cognitively, demographically, culturally and experientially. It will be creative, tech and data-proficient, empathetic and team-oriented. It will work cross-functionally with other enterprise business units and with other industries.
New York state laws include the Constitution, laws passed by the legislature and periodically codified in the New York Consolidated Laws, and decisions of courts that interpret those laws. It also includes local laws adopted by counties, cities, towns and villages and the rules of City agencies.
The most successful companies in the world routinely collaborate and pool resources with their competitors to improve product development, streamline processes and deliver more innovative solutions. Why should the legal industry not adopt this model? It is time for an overhaul of the legal supply chain, erasing artificial, lawyer-created distinctions between provider sources and focusing on an integrated platform-based delivery structure from which agile, fluid, on-demand resources with verifiable, material expertise can be sourced. Profit will be derived not by adherence to an outdated economic model of input-based remuneration but by purpose driven, customer-centric, data-backed, technology enabled delivery with a focus on net promoter scores. This is the future of law.