“The world is becoming automated, and law is no exception.” This is an unavoidable reality, according to panelists of the South by Southwest Interactive session “Your Next Lawyer Could be a Machine,” who said that it is a “scary time” for lawyers who don’t embrace the possibilities of a technologically driven future but “an incredible time” for entrepreneurship-minded lawyers who do.

Nicole Bradick, owner and chief strategy officer of CuroLegal, began the session with a primer on the historical law firm model, which she described as being a pyramid that is based on recruiting the best law student graduates and having them “work their tails off” to make a profit. This is a problem, she said, because inefficiencies are tolerated, and even encouraged, due to their resulting increases of billable hours and because some clients are unwilling to pay for the “hyper-productive” pyramid base.

Bradick, whose company consults law firms, noted that the traditional firm model is slowly changing as many corporate clients are starting to control how firms work a case (such as by directing the firm to outsource contract review to a foreign county), and average consumers are using self-service technology (such as LegalZoom.com) because so many of them can’t afford lawyers. More big firms are taking on structures similar to corporations and companies, with a select few people managing the firm, and the rest of the lawyers are encouraged to do lawyers’ work. While the United States leads Europe in terms of producing new legal technologies, Bradick said that Europe is way ahead of us in terms of innovative firm business models.

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