Present day commentators, as a rule, have nothing but wonderful things to say about U.K.-based Richard Susskind, whose most recent book is Tomorrow’s Lawyers.

We thought it would be fun to take a look backward at Susskind’s earliest book, The Future of Law (1998 – revised in paperback from the 1995 edition). We do so fondly — his predictions were made a long time ago — and we ourselves have eaten so much liberally-salted crow pie with respect to our own predictions that we have practically decimated the crow population of Virginia.

All crystal balls are murky — and honestly, Richard’s predictions hold up pretty well as a body of work. We were greatly amused to read the terminology of the era, with many references to “The World Wide Web” and “the information highway.”

Certainly, he was right about commoditization of the law and lower prices that it would offer — witness the success of LegalZoom and many others, as well as the tendency to unbundle services. He was also correct that the law would no longer be the exclusive preserve of lawyers.

 

For my review of Susskind’s current book, Tomorrow’s Lawyers, go to donphilbin.com/publications/2013-07-tomorrows-lawyers.pdf

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Tags: Forward Book Review, Richard Susskind