The Diverse Futurist
The future of law is in the hands of those who will transform the practice through technology. Commentators have been predicting for years that technology will transform the practice. The technology has caught up to their predictions and firms who want to make money and in house counsel who want to save money will focus on how technology can achieve their goals. The paradox about technology is that it can achieve these inconsistent goals. The firms who develop the software, programming and apps to make litigation more predictable, efficient and cheaper will make more money by licensing their inventions to other firms and in house counsel. And in house counsel, who partner with law firms to develop technology to stream line their claim and litigation handling and resolution will reduce their departments’ cost and boost their companies’ profits.
So with this new paradigm as a backdrop, what is the role for the diverse lawyer? Diverse lawyers, as with every aspect of the practice, bring different, imaginative and effective solutions to use technology to solve problems that up until now no one believed could be solved. What if aspects of litigation could be reduced to a program such as drafting case specific discovery? What if a program could draft motions to compel? What if an app could predict the likelihood of prevailing on a motion for summary judgment before a given judge? Getting from here to there is best achieved with a diverse group of lawyers applying their distinct knowledge and backgrounds to the problems at hand. And so this brings us to the title of this piece. The Diverse Futurist. Consider this a call to arms, a manifesto of sorts, to encourage diverse lawyers to become legal futurists.
In this brave new world, opportunities abound for diverse lawyers to move beyond the traditional practice of law and become experts in the future of law. Law schools are taking notice and some are developing tech law programs. Companies have been relying on tech for years. Netflix redefined movie delivery through on demand technology. Amazon redefined retail by selling every conceivable item online. Law has been resisting tech. Resistance is futile. It’s time for lawyers to embrace law tech wholeheartedly and for diverse lawyers to be pioneers in defining problems and finding solutions through technology. It’s not enough to resolve one case through traditional legal analysis. The time has come to resolve common problems that transcend a single case by defining processes, by creating algorithms and applying analytics that will improve work product, efficiency and results. Imagine creating an app that finds prior orders and reasoning by the judge in one’s case and applies it to the case at hand by assisting with drafting of motions? Diverse lawyers can be at the forefront of this and in house counsel can ensure their involvement by demanding their outside counsel invest in legal tech R&D and ask that diverse lawyers are part of the R&D team.
As diverse lawyers, we have a responsibility to become legal futurists and help other diverse lawyers become ones too. Here is a proposed crash course on becoming one and getting ahead of the curve of legal tech.
Read. Read everything you can get your hands on about legal tech. Read the articles, the blogs, the commentary and books about the current legal tech market and what will soon be hitting the market. Learn the terminology, the players, the programs, the applications, the companies and all the ins and outs about how companies and law firms are developing and using legal tech. Visit the websites of those offering legal tech – study what they offer and how they offer it. You want to learn what problems have already been solved and whether there may be better solutions to those problems.
Attend. Legal tech conferences are becoming ubiquitous. Attend the presentations, the break outs, speak with the vendors, try their programs, ask lots of questions, make friends and stay in touch. This is the brain trust. You want to become one of them.
Play. Use and test legal tech. Try the software samples online. Visit vendors and try their software at their offices. Purchase the apps. Access as much software and apps as you can at conferences, receptions, events hosted by vendors, and whatever samples they offer online. Watch Youtube videos of those making the most of the tech. If you want to learn the potential of legal tech, you have to know what’s out there now and know how to use it.
Study. Attend online classes and webinars about futurism, consumer and business trends, tech and law. Join groups and associations that address these issues and read their publications. You can’t get an official degree in futurism, but you can cobble one together if you have a voracious appetite for the subject matter.
Discuss. Talk to firms’ managing partners, in house counsel, business leaders and Millennials to learn what problems they hope legal tech could solve and their thoughts on how legal tech could serve them. Open ended conversations about the future of law, the practice, legal services and tech can spur a lot of thoughts, ideas and creativity.
Write. Once you’ve taken a deep dive into futurism, start to write on the subject matter. Start with short pieces in trade and legal publications. Taking the time to research, reflect and write on the topic will help you collect and develop your thinking on the topic and will help lay the groundwork for becoming an expert in the area.
Speak. Pursue speaking opportunities on futurism. Start with introducing other speakers. Graduate to moderating panels and taking questions from the audience. And then join panels, as the junior most speaker and eventually be the star of the show. If you have something to say and say it well, you will be asked to speak and be provided more prominent roles at lectures and conferences.
Research. Study the players in legal tech. Who are they? How did they get there? How did they develop their big idea into a popular law firm app or software program? Who pays for all this? Who are the investors? What projects have they invested in? What are they looking to invest in? There is a legal tech community out there that is growing organically to meet the ever increasing demand of law departments and law firms. Learn who these folks are, what they do, how they do it and to the extent possible, become part of their orbit, become their colleagues and learn from them. They have a lot to teach and many are happy to discuss and share their passions.
These are the steps to become an expert in any field, and becoming a legal futurist is no different. Once you laid the foundation for being a legal futurist, it’s time to start applying what you learned. Speak with in house and outside legal counsel, learn what their needs are, explore with them how tech can address those needs and work with them to find solutions. You don’t have to know how to write code or create algorithms. You don’t need a degree in computer science. What you need is a paradigm that equips you to define the problem, consider solutions, evaluate how tech can provide solutions, and facilitate getting from point A to point B by leading, managing and directing the right people with the tech savvy and monetary resources to turn your vision into a reality.
Being a legal futurist is not much different than leading a firm, a legal department or company. You don’t have to master all the details, have all the expertise or answer all the questions. What you need is a vision, a plan to execute that vision and a team to lead to execute it. Consider a legal futurist as a leadership position where you assemble the right team to direct toward your mission and goals. You see legal problems through the legal tech prism, and everything you’ve read and studied helps you understand and appreciate what’s possible and how it’s possible. You apply that knowledge and wisdom to help others achieve solutions they didn’t think possible because they never imagined the breadth and scope of what legal tech has to offer. That’s being a legal futurist at its finest.
And this brings us back to the idea that what the legal sector needs more of are diverse legal futurists. It will be through their diversity that problems that once were thought to be unsolvable will have resolutions. Maybe one day, a diverse legal futurist will help develop an app that will make jury trials more predictable, that will streamline discovery or teach bad witnesses to be great ones. The possibilities are endless and I hope attorneys of diverse backgrounds will be at the forefront of this revolution.
