It is often said that the law limps behind technology. It is also true that the legal profession, like almost every other profession, is rapidly being transformed and even disrupted by advances in technology. Yet, notwithstanding this reality facing the legal profession in every country, the curricula of most law schools continue to be dominated by subjects focused upon traditional legal knowledge. Few schools have responded adequately to the demands of the market or the broader changes taking place in society. What are some of the reforms required to bring legal education into the 21st century information age?

Leadership and management skills

One reform should be to place greater emphasis on transferable, lifelong skills rather than give so much attention to law content. In the highly diverse and multi-disciplinary world in which professionals must practice, there is too much focus on substantive law content which will quickly go out of date, and insufficient focus on the broad set of skills required. Two of these skills are leadership and management. 

Leadership skills, including, e-leadership, are required if tomorrow's lawyers are to navigate shifts in knowledge creation, disintermediation and the need to create new business models that better leverage technology such as big data and AI. This is necessary to deliver better services to clients and devise business models that better serve the large segment of society that cannot afford traditional lawyers' fees.

Management skills are also required to find the best ways to make the delivery of legal services as efficient, affordable and accessible as possible to the wider population. 

Better leadership and management may also eventually shift the focus of legal service delivery away from problems and give greater attention to keeping clients legally healthy and preventing problems rather than having to resort to conflict and forms of litigation to resolve them. 

Collaboration and effective teams

Another skill demanding attention is effective teamwork and collaboration. The globalization of business, internationalization of trade and the increasing prevalence of multi-cultural interdisciplinary teams (often working virtually and asynchronously) are beginning to redefine the nature of work. Today we are more likely to find legal teams working in different places, at different times and from different legal systems and cultures. 

Technology literacy 

Tomorrow's lawyers will work in law offices which will operate in a dramatically different environment than what exists in the majority of today's organizations. Sophisticated computer software and artificial legal intelligence threaten those in the legal profession who depend upon performing routine tasks such as conveyancing. It is not that the knowledge acquired by the lawyer will become devalued; only that the type of knowledge that makes a lawyer valuable is changing. Students today need to have literacy in technology so that they may thrive in this new legal environment. For this reason, more and more law schools are teaching such skills as coding. Law firms are encouraging lawyers to develop software applications and new knowledge products that respond to client needs.  

New paradigms of legal practice

Today, and even more so in the future, work that focuses primarily on routine transactions will face stiff competition from software programs that can do it faster, cheaper and with greater accuracy. What will be demanded in this new environment are higher order, critical thinking skills. The advent of cyberspace as a major medium for communication and commerce has left lawyers searching for appropriate ways to redefine and reorder their legal relationships. This new technology makes a wealth of information universally accessible, adds to it at an unprecedented rate and puts it in a state of constant flux. In this brave new digital world, long-settled legal precedent can have only limited applicability. 

Convergence and the importance of professional networks

As society has moved from an industrial to an information age, there has been a shift in emphasis from goods to services. Yet, much of existing commercial law was designed to facilitate the sale of goods which are tangible and which existing laws provided great certainty. Today, however, the fastest growing sector of the modern economy is that of services and the same laws which deal with goods either often fail to address or inadequately address the needs of this new economic reality. This shift in the emphasis from goods to services requires law makers and law firms to adjust to take advantage of available opportunities. 

Not only has there been a shift from goods to services, but those services are increasingly made up of intangible assets, most notably information, as opposed to tangibles. This reflects the reality that in most modem economies, the values which shape society are increasingly intangibles. This in turn has meant a new evaluation of traditional notions of, and rights in relation to, property law. 

Modern technology and business practice have converged to make it necessary for all commercial lawyers to be aware of intellectual property law, competition law and so on. This has meant that specialists must increasingly widen their vision and forge new links with other specialists in law. But more than that, the lawyer must work closely with colleagues in management and technology. In this resultant legal and managerial uncertainty, a new expert must also emerge who has both the technical depth and breadth of vision to "manage" the realities of this new information age. 

As law becomes an information service, the "divide" between law and other professions becomes less clear as accountants, insurance companies and other professionals challenge the monopoly of lawyers over the provision of legal services. This reality, coupled with the increased competition among law firms themselves, has meant that the practice of law is being defined by the customers – those who purchase legal services.

New models of education 

Law schools are part of a system of education. If law schools are to produce better lawyers, then our primary and secondary schools must do a better job to meet the learning needs of students at every level. A monolithic "one-size-fits-all" education system does not allow teachers to customize learning to meet students' individual needs. Innovations in technology and organization offer the opportunity of mass customization so that students are provided with the means to capitalize on their particular learning needs and preferences. 

As with primary and secondary levels of education, legal education, too, has assumed a "sameness" and "one-size-fits-all" approach that has not been conducive to either quality or innovation. In part, an accreditation regime that has focused predominantly on outputs has helped to encourage this uniformity. However, the same forces of change are ushering in a period of renewal and innovation among law schools as they seek to respond. 

A focus on innovation and the future

Lawyers tend to be conservative by nature and focused on the past and on precedent. They have been successful in the existing system and worked hard to earn their status which regards law as one of the most significant institutions in society. Yet increasingly, the lawyers of the future must learn a culture which places greater emphasis on innovation. In the future, innovation cannot be left to the devices of a few who are technology minded. Law schools, government departments and law firms must play a role in communicating to faculty and students, employees and partners the importance of a culture of innovation. Successful schools and lawyers of the future must see innovation and the need to create and sustain an enduring culture of innovation, not merely as something "nice to do" but a "must do." One must innovate or die.

Conclusion

Change is always difficult, especially for lawyers. Our professional education leads us to look backwards to precedent, rather than forward to innovation. Our education teaches us to be critical and to take ideas and arguments apart. Law students and lawyers tend to react to problems instead of building a system that focuses on general principles and designing creative solutions to meet their respective long-term needs. What is undeniable is that the legal education and the practice of law will and must change, and this change will be permanent. We cannot go back again. We must look forward and design a new form of legal education that is more relevant, diverse, integrated, innovative, outcome focused, evidence based, technology driven, and connected to the practice of law. 

The pace of change, the breadth and depth of technological advancements, the national and international scope of the commercial world all call for a new breed of lawyers who are legal and "technological Vikings" – willing to launch their boats into uncharted seas, eager to face and conquer unknown dangers and uncertain outcomes. 

Eugene Clark is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.keyanhelp.cn/opinion/eugeneclark.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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