New book by Richard Susskind: Tomorrow’s Lawyers

Professor Dr. Richard Susskind has published a new book entitled Tomorrow’s Lawyers: An Introduction to Your Future (Oxford University Press, 2013).

The book is available now in the UK, and will be available next month in the U.S.

Here is the publisher’s description:

In his newest provocative and forward-looking volume on the legal profession, Richard Susskind — the best-selling author of The End of Lawyers? and The Future of Law –predicts fundamental and irreversible changes in the world of law. What Susskind sees is eye-opening-a legal world of virtual courts, Internet-based global legal businesses, online document production, commoditized service, legal process outsourcing, and web-based simulated practice. Legal markets will be liberalized, with new jobs for lawyers and new employers too.

Tomorrow’s Lawyers is a definitive guide to this future–for young and aspiring lawyers, and for all who want to modernize our legal and justice systems. It introduces the new legal landscape and offers practical guidance for those who intend to build careers and businesses in law. Susskind identifies the key drivers of change, such as the economic downturn, and considers how these will shape the legal marketplace. He then sketches out the new legal landscape as he envisions it, highlighting the changing role of law firms-and in-house lawyers-and the coming of virtual hearings and online dispute resolution. He also suggests solutions to major concerns within the legal profession, such as diminishing public funding, and explores alternative roles for future lawyers in a world increasingly dominated by IT. And what are the prospects for aspiring lawyers? Susskind predicts what new jobs and new employers there will be, equipping prospective lawyers with penetrating questions to put to their current and future bosses.

Tomorrow’s Lawyers is an essential roadmap to the future of law for those who want to survive the rapidly changing legal landscape.

Features

• The first introduction for young and aspiring lawyers to the new legal landscape and how to succeed in it
• A revised and updated vision of the future, by one of the world’s leading experts whose past predictions for the law have generally come to pass
• Provides solutions to major concerns within the legal profession, such as diminishing public funding, and explores alternative roles for future lawyers in a world increasingly dominated by IT
• Identifies new employers for lawyers of the future and equips young lawyers with questions to ask prospective employers

Neil Rose has a new summary of the book at Legal Futures: Susskind: no future for high street firms, but window of opportunity for mid-sized practices.

HT @charonqc

June 29: LawTechCamp London

LawTechCamp London 2012 — “a BarCamp-style community UnConference for new media and technology enthusiasts and legal professionals” — will be held 29 June 2012 in London, England, UK.

The Twitter hashtag for the conference is #lawtechcamplondon.

Click here for archived Twitter tweets — in .csv format — from the event.

Click here for the conference program.

A notable characteristic of this event is that it gathers together in one place individuals from most of the different subgroups of the legal informatics community.

The event’s organizers include:

• Daniel Martin Katz, Michigan State University College of Law
• Renee Newman Knake, Michigan State University College of Law
• Monica Goyal, owner and CEO of MyLegalBriefcase.com
• Lisa Webley, University of Westminster Law School
• John Flood, University of Westminster Law School
• David Allison, The College of Law
• Jon Harman, The College of Law 

HT @reneeknake.

Program Posted for LawTechCamp London 2012

The program has been posted for LawTechCamp London 2012 — “a BarCamp-style community UnConference for new media and technology enthusiasts and legal professionals” — to be held 29 June 2012 in London, England, UK.

The Twitter hashtag for the conference is #lawtechcamplondon.

A notable characteristic of this event is that it gathers together in one place individuals from most of the different subgroups of the legal informatics community.

The event’s organizers include:

• Daniel Martin Katz, Michigan State University College of Law
• Renee Newman Knake, Michigan State University College of Law
• Monica Goyal, owner and CEO of MyLegalBriefcase.com
• Lisa Webley, University of Westminster Law School
• John Flood, University of Westminster Law School
• David Allison, The College of Law
• Jon Harman, The College of Law 

HT @reneeknake.

Call for Presentations: LawTechCamp London 2012

Presentation proposals — with submission deadline of 25 May 2012 — are invited for LawTechCamp London 2012 — “a BarCamp-style community UnConference for new media and technology enthusiasts and legal professionals” — to be held 29 June 2012 in London, England, UK.

Click here to submit a presentation proposal.

Here is a description of the event:

lawTechCamp is a BarCamp-style community UnConference for new media and technology enthusiasts and legal professionals including bloggers, twitters, legal-technology lawyers, social networkers, and those curious about new media and the law. Anyone with an interest in technology, law, and innovation–especially in the wake of UK deregulation–will want to attend.

Building off the strength of lawTechCamp Toronto – LawTechCamp London will be the first such event held in outside of North America.

lawTechCamp is not just for lawyers. If you are interested in the intersection of law and technology, such as legal issues facing startups, access to justice issues, or someone just interested in technology or law, then please join us – and bring a friend or colleague.

This event is casual, with active participation between the audience and the workshop presenters and event-attendees. Attendance is free, but registration is required.

The keynote speaker will be Professor Dr. Richard Susskind.

This event is brought to you by the following organizers:

• Daniel Martin Katz, Michigan State University College of Law
• Renee Newman Knake, Michigan State University College of Law
• Monica Goyal, owner and CEO of MyLegalBriefcase.com
• Lisa Webley, University of Westminster Law School
• John Flood, University of Westminster Law School
• David Allison, The College of Law
• Jon Harman, The College of Law 

LawTechCamp London 2012 is co-sponsored by Michigan State University College of Law, The University of Westminster, and The College of Law.

For more information, please see the LawTechCamp London 2012 Website, or the post at Computational Legal Studies.

HT Professor Dr. Daniel Martin Katz.

Kirchberger on the VQ Legal Knowledge and Strategy Forum 2011

Christine Kirchberger, Esq., LL.M., M.L.I.T., junior lecturer and doctoral candidate at Stockholm University Department of Law‘s Swedish Law and Informatics Research Institute (IRI), has posted a summary of, and comments on, the 2011 VQ Legal Knowledge and Strategy Forum, held 4 October 2011 in Stockholm, Sweden.

The summary discusses Richard Susskind’s presentation on the role of technology in the development of legal services. The summary also describes panel discussions and presentations on changes in legal knowledge management, new legal services business models, the role of social media in the law firm context, law firms’ use of business data, notable law practice software, and new mobile apps by Swedish legal information providers.

Ms. Kirchberger invites readers to send her additional “examples of Swedish online legal services or legal cloud services.”

HT @iinek.

Susskind on eLearning at The College of Law of England and Wales

[NOTE: Updated on 29 January 2010 to link to Professor Susskind's Times of London article discussing this report.]

Professor Richard Susskind‘s 2009 evaluation of eLearning at The College of Law of England and Wales has been published. This report is of interest to legal informatics researchers, because it is an assessment of current legal eLearning technology by one of the leading authorities on legal technology.

Here is a summary:

“One way of assessing the exploitation of e-learning technology by the College over the past five years is to regard the initiative as progressing through a four stage evolution, as follows:

• “Stage 1 – the presentation of legal content through i-Tutorials;
• Stage 2 – the one-to-one supervision of students via the S-Mode;
• Stage 3 – collaboration amongst students through Web 2.0; and
• Stage 4 – virtual legal practice through simulation techniques.

“In relation to Stage 1, I conclude that the College has developed and delivered an excellent suite of i-Tutorials; as impressive a collection of legal webcasts as I have seen anywhere.

“In relation to Stage 2, my conclusion is that the S-Mode is an innovative, exciting, and important technique for the world of legal education. It is a bold and largely successful initiative that delivers legal learning on a highly personalised basis….

“In relation to Stages 3 and 4, the College has made less progress….”

Professor Susskind also discusses this report in his article in The Times of London, How Electronic Tutorials and Online Supervision Are Changing Law Courses (21 January 2010).

HT @colmmu.

Susskind & Cooper on Legal Services Outsourcing at Rio Tinto

Legal Week has published a video of a very interesting discussion between Dr. Richard Susskind and Leah Cooper, Rio Tinto’s Managing Attorney, of Rio Tinto‘s June 2009 decision to outsource certain of its legal services to the outsourcing firm CPA Global.

The discussion discloses much interesting information about Rio Tinto’s motivations for outsourcing, and about the details of its outsourcing arrangement, particularly respecting quality control.

The potential implications for law firms and legal education, of this kind of outsourcing arrangement seem quite substantial. Rio Tinto’s use of outsourcing seems consistent with the trends identified by Dr. Susskind in his 2008 book, The End of Lawyers?. (See background and commentary on the book here.)

Legal services outsourcing is relevant to legal informatics because such outsourcing is a key context for legal information processing, and often involves the use or development of new legal information technologies.

HT @complexd.

ILTA ’09

ILTA ’09, the 2009 meeting of the International Legal Technology Association, is taking place August 23-27, 2009 at the Gaylord National Resort and Conference Center, National Harbor, Maryland. The theme of the conference is “Leading Technology | Optimizing Value.”

During the conference, news is available on the ILTA blog, on Twitter (the conference Twitter feed is @ilta09, and the conference hashtag is #ilta09), and on the conference Website (see “Latest News” on the left). Other social network coverage of the conference is described here.

Webcasts of several events are available here.

The brief overview version of the program schedule is available here, and the detailed program schedule is here. A “digital program guide” is available here. The organizers have provided a search tool for identifying programs of interest, and several online planners.

A list of speakers is available here. Of particular interest to legal informatics researchers are two appearances by Dr. Richard Susskind:

• Dr. Susskind will give a “Super Session” address entitled The End of Lawyers (see the slides here), on Wednesday, August 26 at 8:00 a.m.; and
• Dr. Susskind will appear on a panel entitled Technologies That Will Disrupt Traditional Law Practice (see the slides here), on Wednesday, August 26 at 11:00 a.m.

A list of vendor exhibits is here, and a “virtual exhibit hall” is here (HT IntegreonEDD).

We wish our colleagues at ILTA ’09 an exciting and rewarding conference.

Susskind on “The End of Lawyers?”

A great number of resources related to Dr. Richard Susskind‘s recent book, The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services (2008) (see the descriptions at Worldcat.org and at the Oxford University Press Website, and the summary on Dr. Susskind’s blog) are now available. Here is a selected list:

• Dr. Susskind’s Subsequent Articles & Blogposts:
• Dr. Susskind’s article in The Times of London, The Way Lawyers Do Business Is Changing – Is It Time for Them to Plan Ahead? (Jan. 28, 2010);
• Dr. Susskind’s post, Disaster Ahead for Lawyers Unwilling to Change, on ABA’s Legal Rebels Blog (Oct. 14, 2009);

• Speeches & Lectures:
• Dr. Susskind’s appearances at ILTA09 on August 26, 2009, including a lecture on the main topics of the book (see the slides here), and his participation in a panel entitled “Technologies that Will Disrupt Traditional Law Practice” (see Webcast here (scroll down; a fee may apply), and slides here;
• Dr. Susskind’s lecture summarizing the main topics of the book, delivered at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, April 21, 2009 (video (Quicktime) and audio podcast (MP3)); (and here is Gene Koo’s live blogging (at Law School Innovation) of the lecture and discussion);
• Dr. Susskind’s keynote address at ABA TechShow 2009 (Mar. 25, 2009) (audio, in Quicktime format); (plus a transcript of the Twitter feed about the speech from Legal Tweets, and a summary of the keynote by Laura Calloway in Law Practice Magazine (June 2009));
• Interviews:
• Interview with Dr. Susskind by Karim Bardeesy and Tara Perkins of the Globe and Mail, for the article Tentative Steps into the Blogosphere (Jan. 5, 2010) (HT @stevematthews);
• Interview with Dr. Susskind by Sarah Murray of the Financial Times, for the article FT Innovative Lawyers 2009: Spreading the Cost (Oct. 22, 2009) (HT @ronfriedmann);
• Dr. Susskind interviews Leah Cooper, Managing Attorney at Rio Tinto, about Rio Tinto’s decision to outsource certain legal services to CPA Global (Oct. 9, 2009) (HT @complexd);
• Interview with Dr. Susskind by Charon QC (published Sept. 21, 2009);
• Interview with Dr. Susskind by Kina Kim of PivotalDiscovery, at ILTA ’09 (Aug. 26, 2009) (HT Kina Kim);
• Interview with Dr. Susskind by Mark Harding, Group General Counsel, Barclays Bank PLC (May 2009?) (HT Conor Maguire, Brussels Matters Limited);
• Interview with Jacquie McNish of the Globe & Mail (Apr. 9, 2009);
• Paul Lippe’s interview with Dr. Susskind, at AmLawDaily (Nov. 10, 2008);
• Interview with Michael Rappaport of Lawyers Weekly (Feb. 1, 2008);
• Commentary:
• Stephanie Kimbro’s comments about Dr. Susskind’s ABA Legal Rebels Blog post entitled Disaster Ahead for Lawyers Unwilling to Change (Oct. 19, 2009);
• Nick Holmes’s comments about Gillian Bull’s review (Oct. 14, 2009);
• Ron Friedmann’s comments on Dr. Susskind’s remarks during the ILTA09 panel on “Technologies That Will Disrupt Traditional Legal Practice” (Aug. 26, 2009);
• David Hobbie’s comments on Dr. Susskind’s remarks during the ILTA09 panel on “Technologies That Will Disrupt Traditional Legal Practice” (Aug. 26, 2009);
• David Hobbie’s comments on Dr. Susskind’s address at ILTA09 (Aug. 26, 2009);
• David Bilinsky’s comments at sLaw (July 30, 2009);
• Commentary by Michael Stern in The American Lawyer (July 23, 2009);
• Jordan Furlong, This Is Not the End of Lawyers … But This Is the End of the Traditional Legal Business Model, 12 News & Views on Civil Justice Reform 6 (Spring 2009);
• Tessa Shepperson’s comments at Landlord Law Blog (May 14, 2009);
• Chris Dale’s comments at the e-Disclosure Information Project (May 6, 2009);
• Mark Ross, Have Wilson Sonsini Read “The End of Lawyers?”, Legal Process Outsourcing (Apr. 23, 2009);
• Comments from a solo perspective by lennyesq (Apr. 23, 2009);
• Commentary by Dr. Adam Wyner (April 16 & 18, 2009);
• Lisa Solomon, What Susskind’s ABA Techshow Keynote Means for Independent US-Based Contract Lawyers, legalresearchandwritingpro.com (Apr. 12, 2009);
• Post by Bob Ambrogi at LegalBlogWatch (April 6, 2009) [with many interesting reader comments];
• Commentary on Dr. Susskind’s ABA TechShow address by The Posse List, with selected Twitter tweets (Apr. 3, 2009);
• Carolyn Elefant, Richard Susskind & The End of Lawyers: What It Means for Solos (Mar. 24, 2009), and Richard Susskind & The End of Lawyers and the Future of Women in The Law (Mar. 26, 2009), both at MyShingle.com;
• Susan Cartier Liebel, Will You Be A 20th Century Solo Or A 21st Century Solo?, Build A Solo Practice @ SPU (Mar. 25, 2009);
• Shireen Smith, The End of Lawyers? The Legal Hybrid Is Already Here, IP Brands Blog (Feb. 17, 2009);
• Richard Granat, Automated Document Assembly as a Disruptive Legal Technology, eLawyering Blog (Dec. 30, 2008);
• Commentary by Stephen Fairley at the Rainmaker Blog (Nov. 16, 2008);
• Claire Ruckin, Susskind Predicts Demise of Lawyers in IT-Led Future, Legalweek (Nov. 1, 2007);
• Commentary by David Giacalone at f/k/a (Oct.-Nov., 2007);
• The Times Online (Oct.-Nov. 2007): Extracts from the book with commentary; and readers’ comments;
• Ron Friedmann, Susskind: The End of Lawyers? I Think Not, Strategic Legal Technology (Oct. 29, 2007);
• Comments by Rob Millard at Adventure of Strategy (Oct. 27, 2007);
• mazy hedayat’s comments at pm blog (Oct. 25, 2007);
• Comments by Martyn Daniels at Brave New World (Oct. 24, 2007);
• Comments by Ken Adams at AdamsDrafting (Oct. 23, 2007);
• Several posts about the book at sLaw;
• Reviews:
• Review by Gillian Bull in 9 Legal Information Management 228 (Sept. 2009) (fee or subscription required);
• Review at Adam Smith, Esq. (July 31, 2009);
• Review in Law Institute Journal (ISSN 0023-9267), July 2009, at 65 (password required);
• Review by Prof. Mark C. Miller in 19 Law & Politics Book Review 331 (May 2009);
• Review by Geoffrey Bindman in New Law Journal (ISSN 0306-6479), Apr. 24, 2009, at 602;
• Review by Brenlee Carrington in Winnipeg Free Press (Apr. 20, 2009);
• Review at Quill Blog (Apr. 7, 2009);
• Review by Jason Mendelson in Mendelson’s Musings (Mar. 28, 2009);
• Review by Michael Rappaport of Lawyers Weekly (Feb. 27, 2009);
• Review by Jordan Furlong at Law21 (Feb. 10, 2009);
• Review by Mitch Kowalski in the Financial Post (Feb. 10, 2009);
• Review by Jim Hassett of Legal Business Development (Feb. 4, 2009);
• Brief review by Donna Tuke in For Your Information: ABA Tech Show and Investigative Research, Legal Information Alert, Feb. 2009, at 7;
• Review by Nick Holmes in Internet for Lawyers & Law 2.0 (Jan. 2009);
• Review by Douglas Mill in The Journal: The Member Magazine for the Law Society of Scotland, Jan. 2009, at 55 (scroll down).
• Review by Alarna Carlsson-Sweeny in PLC Law Department (Nov. 13, 2008);
• Reviews quoted by Oxford University Press.

If you know of other useful resources related to this book, please mention them in the comments.

[NOTE: Updated on 29 January 2010 to link to Dr. Susskind's 28 January Times of London article entitled The way lawyers do business is changing - is it time for them to plan ahead? Updated on 16 January 2010 to link to the 5 January 2010 Globe and Mail article by Karim Bardeesy and Tara Perkins quoting Dr. Susskind. Updated on 28 October 2009 to link to Dr. Susskind's discussion of Rio Tinto's legal outsourcing decision, with Leah Cooper of Rio Tinto. Updated on 22 October 2009 to link to the Financial Times article on Innovative Lawyers 2009. Updated on 20 October 2009 to link to Dr. Susskind's interview with PivotalDiscovery at ILTA '09. Updated on 19 October 2009 to link to Dr. Susskind's post entitled Disaster Ahead for Lawyers Unwilling to Change on the ABA Legal Rebels Blog, and to Stephanie Kimbro's comments on that post. Updated on 18 October 2009 to link to Nick Holmes's recent post. Updated on 21 September 2009 to link to Charon QC's interview with Dr. Susskind. Updated on 19 September 2009 to link to a review by Gillian Bull. Updated on 5 September 2009 to link to recent commentary. Updated on 8-23-09 to add links to the ILTA09 events, and on 8-8-09 to add Mark Harding's interview with Dr. Susskind, materials at the Oxford University Press website, and several commentaries and reviews. Updated on 8-7-09 to reorder the materials and to include citations to additional reviews of the book.]