Canadian Lawyer InHouse

7 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 A roundup of legal department news and trends Does the legal profession have a moral duty to innovate? D o lawyers have a social and moral duty to embrace innovation to ensure ac- cess to justice? Matthew Peters thinks so. At a panel dis- cussion in Vancouver Dec. 4, the head of McCarthy Tétrault LLP's national innova- tion leader raised the issue for consideration. "We have to remember that we as a pro- fession have a social licence and I actually don't think we treat that social licence with the respect that we need to," said Peters, who is based in the fi rm's Vancouver and Toronto offi ces. Peters was speaking at the BC Legal In- novation Forum conference along with Carla Swansburg, vice president and general manager at Epiq Canada, Michael Walker, managing partner at Miller Thomson LLP's Vancouver offi ce, Karim Amlani, managing counsel at Hootsuite, and Corinne Zimmer- man, general counsel, Department of Justice Canada and chairwoman of the DOJ's Can- ada Innovation Council. As an example, Peters referenced the profession's slow consideration of alternative business structures, particularly at the law society level. The Law Society of Ontario's Alternative Business Structures Working Group has been looking at the issue since 2012. The group shelved a proposal to allow non-lawyer majority ownership of law fi rms in 2015. And while it approved a motion last September to allow non-profi ts and charities to provide legal services through practitioners, some lawyers have remained wary of introducing any form of ABS to the profession. "If you look at demographically where the votes came from, it was a protection- ist vote of the profession to prevent other people from coming in and ultimately pre- venting access to justice," Peters said. "This is a very serious issue for us in the context of innovation in the legal profession because innovation is actually going to help us reach a moral obligation we have with respect to access to justice." By not considering ABS or non-lawyer ownership, Peters says it is an example of preventing innovation. "If we are preventing innovation, we are going to lose our social licence because, quite frankly, if I was an elected offi cial, I would actually pass legislation soon if the profession didn't wake up and say: 'We need to solve this in a different way because you're too self-interested.'" Peters noted that, in particular, the Van- couver market has not done a lot to advance the discussion on innovation in law. "This is the biggest opportunity that the industry has been presented with, I would say literally, in its history. This is the fi rst time we're having this discussion [on inno- vation] in the Vancouver market," he said. "In Toronto, we were having the discussion six years ago, and so if you want to talk about an area that really needs to wake up to be to- tally blunt, this is an area that needs to wake up and realize there is a whole lot going on. This was happening 10 years ago in London [U.K.]. Fac- ing this as a problem is quite frankly going to be a problem for you, whereas seeing it as the best opportunity for your fi rm, that's the right attitude. This market quite frankly needs to do a lot more." The panel was moderated by Peter A. Al- lard School of law professor Jon Festinger, principal at Festinger Law & Strategy, who had posed the question: Is the practice of law a profession, a business or both? Walker, managing partner at Miller Thomson, said lawyers "think of ourselves as being on a different plain; I don't really accept that and we work with lots of other professionals who have professional obliga- tions very similar to ours and I would say, for people who are successful at it, it has al- ways been a business and that will continue to be the case." As the voice of in-house counsel, Karim Amlani of Hootsuite said it often falls to the legal group to be the "ethical back- bone of a company" and "it is increasingly important" as the profession changes and innovates to make sure lawyers maintain their ethical backbones. Zimmerman said, in her opinion, it is more interesting to look at what kind of ca- pabilities make the most effective lawyers. "T-shaped legal professionals — those with deep legal expertise coupled with ba- sic knowledge technically, business and data analytics and human-centred lawyering skills — deep legal expertise is the base line; it's the foundation, but it is augmented by another skillset," she said. "Lawyers need to collaborate with law- yers, with clients, across disciplines — the full range of professionals to ensure we're delivering the best product." When asked to project to what the future of law fi rms will be like in 50 years, Swans- burg said the business model has to change. "I think in a law fi rm the whole staffi ng structure and business model has to change. Historically, it's been elite partners at the top and junior lawyers who generate the revenue. I say this all the time — the tech- nology and alternative e-service providers are moving up the value chain and it starts with commodity work. There are more and more ways to get that work done," she said. "It may have stated with legal research and document review, but now it's due diligence and legal research." She referenced tools such as LegalMa- tion, which automates early-stage litigation work by leveraging the IBM Watson plat- form. It was recently adopted by Wal-Mart for all new lawsuits as part of the company's initial case assessment process. Walker said the capitalization of law fi rms will be an important driver of change, more so even than the introduction of technolo- gy. Firms would also benefi t from bringing more non-lawyers into their organizations who are treated with respect from lawyers. "In 50 years, there may be pockets of owner-operator boutique advisors — the main body of the profession may be capital- ized differently and driven by shareholder discipline and fi nancial discipline and you may see the profession turned on its head," he said. IH This is the biggest opportunity that the industry has been presented with, I would say literally, in its history.

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