Canadian Lawyer

18 A u g u s t 2 0 1 4 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m by danielle olofSSon tECh sUpport Future gaps Despite its ambitious scope, Tomorrow's Lawyers is more timepiece than blueprint. R ichard Susskind wrote his most recent book, Tomorrow's Lawyers: An Introduction to Your Future, "to pro- vide tomorrow's lawyers and legal educators with an accessible account of the pressing issues that currently face the legal profession." But, despite its ambitious scope, the work is more timepiece than blueprint. The book contains three parts: the first describes some challenges to the present legal services market, the sec- ond paints a portrait of the profession in a few years time, and the third discusses legal education and suggests new career paths for graduates. As with any Susskind work I have read, the book contains many interest- ing observations and arguments, but the generality of these does not justify his repeated claim that "in my numer- ous books and newspaper columns over the last 25 years I have been right more often than wrong in my predictions." Predicting that technology is going to change the way we do things is a bit like the weather man predicting rain: if you wait long enough eventually he will be right! The difficulty with Tomorrow's Lawyers is it draws upon examples often specific to the U.K. market to reach con- clusions about the profession as a whole. Susskind argues three drivers — information technology, the "more for less challenge," and the liberalization of the legal profession — will reduce the cost of legal services thereby forcing law firms not only to standardize much of their work but to revise their present structural model that is based on growth (the pyramid where a few partners at the top push down work to numerous juniors). This in turn will affect recruit- ment leaving many new lawyers without work at traditional employers such as law firms and in-house departments. To begin with, one of Susskind's three drivers exists only in the United Kingdom. Other jurisdictions have not passed similar legislation deregulating the profession. Likewise, the claim that markets are shrinking or stagnating and pyramid-type leverage must disappear may apply to structures in Europe and North America, but is hard to imag- ine on the African, Asian, and South American continents that offer tre- mendous opportunity for growth. As an aside, growth in these markets will surely render one of Susskind's much toted business solutions less profitable: legal process outsourcing to emerging markets. As these markets "emerge" salaries will increase and no longer render them the cost saving solution of choice. Another frustrating feature of Tomorrow's Lawyers is that as logical as Susskind's conclusions are, they remain future solutions to present problems not future solutions to future problems. There is no acknowledge- ment anywhere in the book the legal profession may naturally evolve away from some of the challenges he iden- tifies. This weakness is particularly pronounced in his discussion of law faculties and their overproduction of lawyers. While this may be the case at present, is there any indication it will continue? Certainly the same market forces that drive the profession should, at least in part, drive university admissions, especially in countries in which tuition is very high. If there are no jobs at the end of the degree why bother enrolling? This is already being reflected in declining law school enrolment numbers in the United States. Moreover, a question Susskind raises but fails to explore satisfactorily is the delay of the legal profession (in both the public and private spheres) in implement- ing the technological changes he views as so pressing. A first and obvious answer to this question is cost. Many of the systems that render legal document management,

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