LIQUID LEGAL Manifesto: Changing the State of Aggregation in Legal

Abstract

The fundamental change in the legal industry is often called the end of an era. While this accurately reflects the gravity of the impact, it disguises the huge opportunity this holds for our function. Building on our intrinsic capability of creating trust and stability in business, legal can and should look into the future—as unknown as many things may be—with an optimistic mindset. Traditional boundaries in our industry and around our function collapse. They are torn down by the new types of services offered by legal process outsourcers (LPO’s), the new ways services are being offered by LPO’s and also law firms, and of course the radically new opportunities that legal technology brings about. The new landscape and the new horizons created by the changes open the way for legal to rethink modus operandi. We can and must break free from our self-referential system and find a new balance between our interdependence, i.e. how we relate to the company as a whole, and our independence, i.e. our own self. This will enable us to recalibrate ourselves and strive to create business value straight by our own work and by how we go about it. As we think about the creation of value and as we embrace the vast opportunity that legal technology holds for us in that respect, our approach to both, primary legal data, and, legal analytics will change. As we introduce smart legal technology to our work that supports our processes on primary legal data, we will automatically be able to generate legal analytics that create unique insights for the company. In LIQUID LEGAL, collaboration is the new paradigm! Forward looking non-profit organizations will drive us forward; open exchange between inhouse departments will create ideas and confidence when stepping onto unknown territory; academia has a wealth of guidance to offer and legal education an opportunity to adapt to a rapidly changing profile of lawyers that must be reflected in the curriculum. The law of gravitation in legal has changed. Maneuvering requires a new vision and new strategies. Leadership is required throughout and leaders need to rethink their traditional approaches and need to welcome the new talent, skills and roles that come into being in legal. We need to run our function with business discipline. If everything flows, we better change our state of aggregation and become LIQUID LEGAL and, in the spirit of collaboration, continue to share what we learn—to create and add new value.