It should come as no surprise to those inside and outside of the legal services industry that lawyers face displacement – but as a recent article at Bloomberg BNA points out, there is nothing new about “change”. Will lawyers evolve to meet these changes?
“Fifteen years ago, junior associates at large firms might spend hundreds or even thousands of hours reviewing and coding discovery documents — again, at full billable rates. Those days are long gone. Sadly for some, thankfully for others, depending on whether you were sending the bill or paying it. This evolving division of labor is called disaggregation. It has occurred in many fields for many years, breaking up jobs into component parts and distributing them in order to create economic efficiency. Sounds like a major improvement for lawyers, right? Maybe so… if you assume your own job is safe.”
Read: Perspective: Lawyers Face Displacement — Breaking Up is Hard to Do at Bloomberg BNA Business of Law