Technology in the hands of businessmen

Young people apparently feel quite strongly about this technology fad.

The International Association of Young Lawyers (AIJA), with the help of the Council of Bars and Law Societies in Europe, recently conducted a survey of 180 European lawyers between the ages of 25 and 45 from 48 different countries around the world. 

Bad news first: Approximately 47 percent of respondents consider resistance to innovation to be the number one threat facing the legal industry. The good news? That's a 24 percent drop from the last time the survey was conducted two years ago.

“Generally I would tell you that they're not that fearful of technology. … Over the last few years, we've been discussing this topic and approaching it from very positive perspective,” said Xavier Costa, AIJA president and a partner at Roca Junyent.

He concedes that the 47 percent figure might have bumped higher if the question had been posed to an elder demographic hoping to ride off into the sunset overlooking a retirement community before they were asked to learn yet another password management system.

As for the rest, Costa thinks lawyers are too pragmatic by nature to expend time or willpower in fighting the inevitable and the survey tends to bear him out.  Almost half of all respondents (42 percent) expressed confidence that their firms were taking the necessary steps to incorporate tech such as artificial intelligence (AI) tools, automation or the cloud into their workflow.

Costa thinks it's the wide variety of choices on the table, not fear, that's preventing technology adoption from moving at a brisker pace.

“They're willing to embrace this technology, but right now they feel that there are too many tools available. … They are fearful of investing in the wrong technology. So even though they are willing to use the technology and legal tech in their firm today, the level of implementation is surprisingly low still,” Costa said.

The survey found that only 16 percent of lawyers are afraid that the technological advancements of the future will usurp their jobs, a 12 percent drop from 2016.

More anxiety was reserved for the rise of alternative providers of legal services. Among those surveyed, 86 percent believed that firms are more likely to employ non-lawyers to service clients in the name of cost-efficiency and making use of new technologies.

Costa sees this as part of the evolution of the attorney/client relationship, which is shifting from a continuous stream of assignments to larger, project-based work.

“Nowadays, you have to give overall solutions to the client and many times the legal part is a part of this, so you need to do a partnership sometimes with people from the tech sector or other areas,” Costa said.

In the survey, 33 percent of respondents ranked “business-minded” skills as the top choice for abilities needed by lawyers in the future, followed by “general digital competence” and “management skills.”

As technology becomes more intuitive and user friendly, less emphasis may be placed on those skills in favor of the kinds of relationships that an attorney can leverage to service clients like  multinational corporations.

“The technology has made globalization even more obvious, but lawyers advise usually only on national law. So having an international network that allows you to provide a full service to your client. … The business with your clients is global,” Costa said.

Correction: Survey respondents were from 48 countries around the world. A previous version of this story said 48 countries in Europe.