New Year predictions are easy. You just need to pick something that’s highly likely to happen, but that’s what makes them so useless. For a prediction to offer any value, it has to anticipate the unexpected—and it should be risky.

You don’t see many of these risky predictions because, well, who wants to end up looking stupid?

But the legal press exists to be helpful to the industry and so I will risk my own reputation by attempting to foresee a few possible bumps that could be coming down the road, based on numerous conversations with law firm leaders.