Hello
Everyone,
Did you know
that a book has been written called The
End of Lawyers? by Richard Susskind?
Susskind was
contemplating the demise of mercers, cordwainers, wheelwrights and tallow
chandlers. Although we can still buy silk,
leather, wheels and candles, the crafts people who made these have in the main
disappeared. Their professions have
morphed due to economic conditions.
Susskind
wondered if this could happen to lawyers.
He proposes that the rising cost of legal services and the ready
availability of cheaper alternatives is likely to transform the industry. Susskind refers to the 60 million disputes
which comes from sales issues with eBay and the online dispute resolution. The online resolutions allow problems to be
solved with a minimum of human interaction.
If this can
happen with eBay then it is likely to spread. The high demand and high cost of
legal services is likely to give rise to
new ways of settling traditional problems.
Outsourcing
in the legal field is already common for back-office jobs, contract reviewing,
drafting and legal research. Software
is also being developed to replace human judgements and systems are being
developed to support a wide range of needs in this area. Technological trends will continue and this
will have a huge impact on the nature of the legal industry.
Other
professions are also likely to change significantly die to technology. Other writers such as Daniel Finkelstein
ponder the longevity of professional politicians as we know as we know them. In the US State Department, for example,
computer modelling is used to help it understand and resolve international
disputes. Game theory and and computer
simulations are used to help determine the outcome of foreign elections and
predict terrorist activity.
To read more
of these ideas see Roz's latest book Future
Words
Source:
'Do we
really need MPs now we have Twitter' by Daniel Finkelstein
The Times
Wednesday July 2 2014
