One of the discussions in my ethics class at Quinnipiac Law School involved asking the students to articulate how they would compete with the Internet once they were admitted to the bar and trying to make a living at the law. These are twenty-somethings, with a few thirty-somethings sprinkled in, who have grown up in the digital age. It was interesting to hear their responses, which boiled down to a list of all the advantages of a personal relationship with a lawyer over an impersonal transaction done via the Internet.
It turns out that my students were right—what clients want from their lawyers is what they cannot get from the Internet. In his article, “What Do Clients Want From Their Lawyers?,” in a recent edition of the Journal of Dispute Resolution, Clark D. Cuningham, who holds the W. Lee Burge Chair in Law & Ethics at Georgia State University College of Law, examines several studies about the relationship between corporate clients and their attorneys.
