that law firms must embrace are three
things: commoditization of legal work,
advancement of artificial intelligence
(AI), and decreasing demand for
traditional legal services.
every firm and every practice," Clay
said about commoditization. "So we're
seeing the biggest firms with the most
lucrative practices dealing with issues
of commoditization, as well as small
firms who might be facing things like
LegalZoom and other alternative service
providers."
To critics who wonder whether the
commoditization of legal services is
cyclical, Clay says no.
"Once goods and services have been
reduced in terms of cost because of
efficiencies, the market will never let it
go back," he said. "It's the proverbial
threat and opportunity. So if you embrace
it, and some firms are, and take it to the
market, that's great."
Watson, and are ready to make friends
with "him."
Watson, IBM's computer system
capable of answering questions, is one
form of AI that could have a big impact
on the legal industry.
"It's not science fiction. It's in the
market," Clay said. "If you look at it,
and see what AI will be able to do, if you
get in front of it, you can harness that as
a tool and use it to your advantage. You
will not only survive, but thrive."
Technological advances and AI level
the playing field in the legal world,
Clay said.
practitioner would have at his or her
fingertips all of the information and data
that a lawyer in a 1,000-lawyer firm
would have at his or her fingertips," Clay
said. "And then if you marry it with AI,
on our iPhones, everyone will be equal."
Areas like AI also present
opportunities for organizations like
Primerus to collaborate and help
members stay on top of the trends and
better serve their clients.
Primerus Senior Vice President of
Services Chad Sluss said Primerus offers
members partnerships with several legal
service providers, including LegalSifter,
a company which helps law firms start
to embrace AI. Primerus members get
a 15 percent discount off the company's
products, including ContractSifter, which
sifts through stacks of contracts.
Firms in Transition Survey is the ongoing
decreasing demand for traditional legal
services.
"If you look at the data from 10 years
before the recession [in 2008] and the
data now, it's very clear that the amount
of traditional hourly legal work has
diminished greatly and is continuing
to go down," Clay said. "So the hope
that demand will return is not rational.
Demand isn't going to return to the levels
that it was."
That could spell bad news for
lawyers, but Clay sees it as an
opportunity as well.
He describes four buckets of work
lawyers do: advocacy, counseling,
process and content.
Process and content (including due
diligence, document drafting, research,
document assembly, document review)
are two buckets where commoditization
is happening.
"I think most lawyers will tell
you that's not the stuff that's fun or
interesting," Clay said. "Now a lot of
that, like e-discovery, is being done
by alternative service providers or
technology."
Advocacy and counseling are the
work Clay called "real lawyering."
back to lawyers being more real lawyers,"
he said.
of Primerus member firm Bivins &
Hemenway in Tampa, Florida, said his
firm is watching closely and planning as
Florida is exploring an electronic wills
act. The act will legalize electronic wills,
therefore allowing those with modest
estates to get wills faster and cheaper from
online services without involving a lawyer.
This will likely cause Bivins &
Hemenway to lose some of its introductory
estate planning clients, Hemenway
said, but they're choosing to see it as
an opportunity to build even deeper
relationships with their clients.
"This will probably delay some of the
initial meetings we have with clients. For
that basic document that a computer can
do, they might not need to come see us,"
he said. "But we are focusing on building
relationships and deepening relationships
we have with existing clients so that they
will come see us once their needs evolve
a little more ... once they decide that they
are beyond what a computer can do and
they need a human."
In his role as chairman of the Primerus
Young Lawyer's Section, Hemenway is
passionate about helping young lawyers
make the connections and learning the
skills needed to succeed in the legal
profession of the future. (The section is
designed for Primerus attorneys under the
age of 40 or who have been admitted to
practice for seven years or less.)
When asked what excites him and
scares him about the future of the legal
industry, he has one answer: "Robots, for
both," he said.
"The fear relates back to the pace
of development," Hemenway said. "It's
harder to keep up. You also don't have
the benefit of learning from the mistakes
of early adopters because the time
frame is crunched down. Going forward
we are going to see where you have to
be nimble and prepared for these fast
developments."
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