In the mid-90’s, someone called a recession, and everyone showed up. We had one lawyer who did nothing but enforce mortgages for a Bank. I was a junior partner who fancied myself as a business promotor, and I suggested that we use the slogan, “[name of our firm], kicking more people out of their houses in Peel Region than any other law firm.” For some reason, the senior partners did not agree.
Just when we were at our busiest, the Bank took all of the mortgage remedy work in-house on very short notice. We did not see that coming. Suddenly we had a narrowly trained lawyer with nothing to do. Longer notice of impending doom would have helped us minimize our losses.
Which brings us to today. We have plenty of notice that things are going to change. We know that legal technology is going to disrupt how we practice law. Increasingly, document production will be automated and performed by paralegals instead of lawyers, or by technicians instead of paralegals. We will use technology to file documents with the courts and the government, and to correspond with clients efficiently. A.I. will reduce the time we spend on legal research. I could go on and on.
As technology modifies how we do things, we need to think about the corresponding changes that will be required to how we recruit, train, supervise, mentor, and manage our people.
As a profession, we must start asking questions and looking for answers. Here are just a few questions to get us started:
- Have we developed new criteria to hire for positions which will require less legal expertise and more facility with technology?
- What are we planning to do with people whose personality is a great match for jobs that present an intellectual challenge, but who will not thrive when the machines are doing the tough part and they are relegated to data entry? Are we going to retrain them? Redirect their career path? Let them languish and be miserable?
- If those who survive in the legal profession will do so by migrating to higher-end work that requires superior intellect, a strategic mind, and emotional intelligence, how are we going to find them? Will we be retraining people, or firing people and recruiting new talent?
- Is there a plan for implementing change, or will it be: (a) first, implement technology; (b) then, realize you have the wrong people or they don’t have the required skills; and (c) last, start thinking about training or recruiting?
Back in the 90’s, we proposed retraining our mortgage remedies lawyer and asked them to agree to a reduction in compensation while we tried to scrounge up work that they could do. It did not go well for us.
Our excuse was that we had little notice of the impending disaster. You do know what is coming. How are your plans coming along?
Appara has some thoughts on helping new hires succeed, which you can read here: https://bit.ly/HowtoHelpNewHiresSucceed