The End of Lawyers?: Rethinking the nature of legal services

Great theoretical book for any professional practice.

The legal world is changing very rapidly, and the central argument of this brilliant and imaginative book is that the future for lawyers is bleak unless they are prepared rethink the ways they work. Susskind notes that the methods adopted by legal businesses are now so outdated that teenagers `would be horrified by the antiquity of it all'. The same applies to the courts and Susskind sees reforming outmoded court procedures as one way in which the public's `access to justice' might be considerably enhanced. The rapid growth of online dispute resolution procedures provides a striking example of what he has in mind.Susskind argues that market forces have meant that using lawyers has now become so expensive as to be unsustainable and that there is a pressing need for a `genuine transformation in the way in which legal services are delivered'. He provides a long list of ways that law firms might adapt (e.g. by embracing developments in IT, standardising and `commoditizing' legal work, off-shoring, outsourcing, multi-sourcing and subcontracting) if they are to survive. He also regards it as crucial that lawyers charge for the work they do by fixed fees, not on an hourly basis. For obvious reasons, efficiency is, as Susskind puts it, `the enemy of the law firm that charges on an hourly billing basis.'Lawyers tend by nature to be highly conservative and many will doubtless see the message in this scholarly yet highly readable book as unpalatable. But lawyers who resist calls to adopt new (and very unfamiliar) working practices will do so at their peril. Susskind is right: the law does not exist to provide a livelihood for lawyers.

Das Buch legt den Grundstein dafür, wie der Anwaltsberuf in der modernen Welt aussieht und aussehen wird. Das Buch wendet sich zwar an englische Anwälte. Fragen der (elektronischen) Aktenführung und die Möglichkeit des Outsourcens standardisierbarer Aufgaben stellen sich aber genauso für den deutschen Anwalt.Kürzlich ist ein neues (etwas dünneres) Buch von Richard Susskind erschienen: "Tomorrow's Lawyers". Für den deutschen Anwalt ist dieses neuere Buch ausreichend.

Richard Susskind is an established author of books about technology and the legal profession. This book is very well-written by someone who has reduced the complexities of technology down to management principles and concepts. However, rather than making bold predictions about where the nature of legal services is heading, the bulk of this book revisits the historical impact of internet, e-mail, client relationship management ("CRM") on the legal profession and then, half-heartedly, provides a few examples of current trends, while hedging that these trends may or may not fizzle-out. Nevertheless, this approach makes perfect sense when you reflect on his historical analysis. Thus far, the investment in the nexus between technology and legal services has been trial and error; some concepts have worked and others were expensive misallocations of resources.Take-away points: * The paperless office is coming, but enthusiasts similar to Susskind have been saying that for years. How much printing did you do last week? * Client relationship management ("CRM") software is essential for nearly everyone practicing law, whether local or cloud-based. * Similar to the way many of us now use TurboTax Online, increasingly, motivated individuals will be able to exercise legal self-help using internet resources (e.g. [...], [...], and even [...]). However, don't expect all potential clients to be so motivated. People will still need lawyers.In conclusion, if you are a young associate or law-student techie that is trying to figure out what to expect from the next ten years of practice, this is a must-read. It will quickly bring you up to speed as to what the decision-makers in many firms have been dealing with over the last few decades and why they will not be so eager as this generation to hand over their lives and their firms to Clio, RocketMatter, Google, and Facebook.More information at: [...]

私は50年近く法曹界に席を置いています。この本をネットで知りました。アマゾンで取り寄せたところ数日できました。ペパー版ですので大変安いとお思います。原書ですが法曹関係者なら、関心のある問題ですから、辞書なくても読めます。お薦めします。