The FUTURE LAWYER

It is undeniable that all of us, professionals and companies, are being forced to adapt ourselves to the huge content of information that bombards us daily and mainly to the increasing pace of all changes that our society is facing nowadays.

The exponential growth of information in the digital media such as court judgments, pleadings, contracts, opinions, e-mails and others create by itself an increasing difficulty in the search, correct identification and analysis of information that are relevant to the needs of a lawyer but, on the other hand, the capacity of analyzing information, the synthesis of ideas and arguments, and the preparation of legal documents still rely on people and on their human limitations.

Two other important factors also increasingly pressure the legal profession: The first one is the pressure that the customers exert in order to obtain faster and obviously correct solutions and the second one is the competitive pressure, forcing the professionals to better manage their costs and be able to offer more competitive prices, always maintaining the quality. (I point out that quality is not the only differentiation factor anymore because, as an example, I mention the fact that the Brazilian market has evolved from a few corporate firms to hundreds of good ones in a period of 3 decades.)

As if all this were not enough, there is still the pressure exerted by the change of behavior of the society itself, more and more connected with everything, everybody and at the same time, increasingly generating a sense of urgency and a expectative for immediate results across it.

Because of all this pressure and also because of the human limitation, the legal professional was obliged to find an ally in order to face all these challenges and evolve, and this ally is called technology! Although it does not seem so (in the eyes of a non-lawyer) the legal profession is one of those that mostly needs and depends on technology in order to provide efficient and responsive services.

The technology is treated by the lawyer (and could not be otherwise) as a means and not an end and should be used as a very powerful tool improve efficiency and effectiveness in the profession. Thus, the more complete lawyer that will be more competitive and prepared for the challenges of his/her profession must have:

– More comprehensive knowledge on issues related to human relations in order to better manage his/her team and his/her talents by adopting motivating challenges and using specific “KPI’s”, besides more modern career paths adapted to the new generations.

– A better knowledge of Institutional and Personal Marketing in order to increase his/her market share through modern techniques of participation and projection in the digital media.
– A better training in business management in order to economically, financially and strategically manage his/her company with the help of ERP software, BI, and so on.
– Familiarity and the use of technologies that generates his/her documents through “docmentassembly” software.
– The necessary technologies and know how to make the most of them in order to:
– Find as quickly as possible all the information needed in order to produce his/her legal document with the help of search robots and/or cognitive intelligence software.
– Properly manage his/her strategic knowledge (explicit or tacit), organizing it and indexing it for future use.
– Statistically analyze jurisprudence and previous decisions of courts and judges.

Although technology is just a tool, all these activities will be devised and managed by lawyers through software and intelligent systems which will require from them a much more eclectic and technological training than the merely technical training that these professionals are being submitted in the universities.

More and more and along all their career, besides their own specific update in Law, the lawyers will be compelled to become professionals with more comprehensive knowledge such as: team and people management, business management, institutional and personal marketing, communication and mainly affinity with technology and with the digital world (to avoid the risk of becoming a Jurassic professional).

José Paulo Graciotti, is consultant and founding Partner of GRACIOTTI ASSESSORIA EMPRESARIAL, engeneer by Escola Politécnica Universidade de São Paulo, with Financial MBA at FGV and specialized in Knowledge Mnagement by FGV. ILTA Member since 1998 (International Legal Technology Association) and ALA (Association of Legal Administrators), with more than 27 years managing Law Firms in Brazil – www.graciotti.com.br