I used to have a partner who was fond of saying a lawyer spends half their life worrying about having too much to do. And the other half worrying about not having enough.
If true, then most lawyers are in the first half right now: more and more demand for legal work and fewer and fewer people around to help get it done. (For a good summary of the situation and the links some firms will go to to retain lawyers to do the work, see this excellent article by Lizzie McLellan.)
One possible result of this mismatch is a technology revolution among lawyers. It’s no secret that for years, lawyers have largely resisted technology. Particularly technology that would reduce the time spent on billable matters. Less time spent on billable matters, less revenue.
But there is one thing lawyers fear more than reduced billable hours. Not being able to get their work done
But there is one thing lawyers fear more than reduced billable hours. Not being able to get their work done. The fear of not being able to meet client or court imposed deadlines. And when they can’t throw more bodies at a project to get it done, they will look to other solutions. And right now, that’s often technology.
We saw lawyers shift how they got work done as e-discovery exploded a few years ago. At first, lawyers tried to review the mountains of e-discovery spawned material by bringing in associates and paralegals to pour over the material the old fashioned (and billable) way. It often didn’t matter that the associate or paralegal didn’t know much about the case. The material had to be reviewed, and the only way to do that in time, it was thought, was to throw bodies