The practice of law is changing, and lawyers need to adapt their business model to these changes. The Attorneys Creative Roundtable helps lawyers adapt to the changing business climate.

1. Are You Ready to Practice Law
in the 21st Century
or
Will You be One of the Lawyers
Who Becomes Extinct?

2. “Stable is that step backwards
between success and failure.”
~ Peter Campbell, Mad Men

3. Factors changing the Practice
 Shrinking middle class
(economy)
 More lawyers, less clients
 Outsourcing
 Commoditization
 Technological breakthroughs
 Tort Reform
 More In-House counsel

4. Are you
adapting to
the
changes
in the
Practice of
Law?

5.  Most of us are
familiar with
Friedman’s book and
the many changes
affecting our society
 The Practice of Law
is not immune to these
forces . . .

6. Friedman’s conclusions:
 Technological advancements have
changed the business landscape in
ways difficult to comprehend.
 Web technologies have erased
geographical barriers that once
prevented businesses from engaging
and competing on a global scale.
 Individuals unwilling to accept and
embrace change will fall quickly
behind, while those who are
innovative and adaptable will thrive in
this new world order.

7. Changes in the Legal Industry
 Every industry has suffered enormous
structural changes due to globalization
and technology
 Changes to the legal industry began in
the late 1980’s.
 Changes have increased due to the
recession.
 In 5 years you will not recognize the
legal industry and our business.

8. Technology . . .
 Replaces many of the tasks formerly performed by
lawyers.
 Drives down the cost of legal services
 Satisfies unmet consumer needs
 Incomes of our clients have stagnated, but the
demand has been unmet.
 Inexpensive on line legal services offer many doit-yourself legal kits for personal & business needs
 Legal Zoom had 1,000K customers in 10 years
 We need to harness technology to deliver greater
value to clients as a cost that declines over time.

9. The End of Lawyers?
 Legal best seller
 Acclaimed by some.
 Deemed heresy by others
 Created a tidal wave of
debate amongst lawyers,
law firms and scholars.
 Challenges us to:
 Charge Less
 Work differently
 Embrace technology
 Deregulate

10. Challenge to all lawyers –
Ask yourself - - - - What elements of a
lawyer’s current workload
could be undertaken
differently - more quickly,
cheaply, efficiently, or to a
higher quality - using
alternative methods of
working.

11.  Susskind has predicated the
end of many roles assumed
by lawyers in his latest book
 His past predications have
come to pass.
 What are the future roles we
as lawyers can assume to
protect our businesses from
extinction?
 What area of practice will
you be working at in the
future?

12. Another Susskind book:
 Legal institutions and
lawyers are poised to
change more radically
over the next two decades
than they have over the
last two centuries.
 Offers challenges to young
lawyers to meet the
challenges and find
innovative, technological
ways to meet the
challenges.

13. Susskind’s future legal
market includes:
 Virtual courts
 Web-based global legal





businesses
Online doc production
Commoditized Service
Legal Process Outsourcing
Web-based simulated
practices
Liberalized legal markets:


New Jobs
New Employers

14. Successful innovative lawyers will grapple
with 3 interconnected forces make change
in the Legal Profession inevitable
 More sophisticated clients armed with more
information and greater market power will rein in the
costs of legal services.
 A global economy increases the complexity of the
legal work but results in more competition.
 Information Technology automates and replaces many
of the billable functions traditionally performed by
lawyers.

15. The Evolving Practice of Law
 This author predicts that many
areas of practice are being
eliminated.
 He suggests that there are some
options which are available to
lawyers to preserve their
businesses.

16. Galbenski’s suggestions to meeting
the challenges of the future
1. There will be new ways to buy legal services.
2. There will be new ways to provide legal services.
3. There will always be new ways to organize legal
4.
5.
6.
7.
services.
Legal service providers will feel more pressure to
consolidate.
There will be new ways to know about legal services.
New categories and types of people will be called upon
to perform legal services.
There will be new ways to educate legal professionals.

17. The Future Law Firm:
 Will have customers, not clients.
 Offer flat fees per project or per procedure.
 Rates will be markedly lower than in 2008.
 Budgets for all legal work will be needed.
 Our practices will be run like real businesses
which:



Know the Costs
Can calculate a profit margin.
Offer just in time services at the best price.

18. It is only the wisest and the
stupidest that do not change.
~ Confucius

19. Attorneys’ Creative
Roundtable
If you would like to participate in a peer advisory group
roundtable to explore ways to meet the challenges of the
21st Century, ask George Bellas for information about
participating in the Attorneys Creative Roundtable . . . .
Contact George Bellas (george@bellas-wachowski.com)
wwwattorneyscreativeroundtabale.com