Legal Tech Tomorrowland: Experts Make Predictions for the Future
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Automating the work of lawyers and legal professionals has long been the focus of these types of discussions—even before we watched a computer named Watson trounce its human opponents on Jeopardy.
One of the fundamental functions of an attorney is spotting an unseen issue, pitfall or anomaly. And we don’t yet know the extent to which all legal issues can be seen and resolved without humans. This appears to be the key question at the crux of the issue for the future of the profession and technology’s role in it.
But before we surrender entirely to the robot overlords, Norm Thomas, senior vice president of corporate development at Litera and former market development director for Microsoft’s enterprise legal and professional services division, predicts an increase in commoditized services by top law firms.
“In next few years, we might find the commoditization of legal services being embraced by some leading law firms,” Thomas told Legaltech News. “Rather than competing with LegalZoom and the like, some firms might provide self-service capabilities to their premium customers as a way of keeping them onboard. The thing about law, it’s always adding more complexity on top. The lower more repeatable areas of legal services are always going to be commoditized. I think it’s the law firms that are embracing both directions that will be the winners in the long run.”
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