The urgent need for lawyers’ service offerings to evolve

The nature of, and approach to, legal practice has “changed dramatically” since the start of this decade, he reflected, noting that pre-pandemic, “there was a whole series of steps in engagement and relationship building, which Zoom and Teams and a whole variety of other media have taken away”.

Moreover, Douglas continued, the skills that used to come from relationship building at an intimate level are “much more diffuse”, and relationships are built across platforms rather than in person.

Two headline challenges arise from this changing landscape, he suggested: one, “your point of difference or intimacy and connection is critical in maintaining your foothold and expanding it”, and two, being a great practitioner is now fourfold: talent, business acumen, marketing capacity, and leadership skills, Douglas opined.

When asked what these shifting sands say about where the legal profession is at right now, Douglas said that the law is “evolving at such speed, and the truth is, if you’re not listening to what I’m saying, you’ll become extinct”.

“Artificial intelligence and the operation of technology is stealing transactional work, which is the traditional suburban work, it’s the traditional cash flow of all large businesses – it will be gone in 10 years,“ he said.

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“The only work that will exist for lawyers is the high skill of strategic guidance and supporting work, which comes through the intellectual freedom of knowing a client, knowing circumstances, and understanding in depth what a good outcome looks like.”

Without that, Douglas suggested, there is no other service.

“So, we have to understand that if we don’t take this leap, if we don’t decide to engage, that the nature of our services are not evolving. There’s a revolution going on at the moment. There are bits of what we did five years ago that have gone, and in 10 years’ time, all the lower-level transactional volume work will be gone. That goes from insurance work, goes to crime, it goes to a whole lot of levels, will be digitalised and lawyers will be irrelevant to it,” he said.

This does not, however, need to be a scary prospect, Douglas mused – instead, he said, it provides lawyers with “the greatest opportunity of all”: to use their brain.

“It allows them to do the work, which is clever work, to be able to manipulate the various levers. They have that sense of agency in a client relationship where you’re creating value for them.

“It is the nice end of law,” he said.

“It’s the part of the law that I love, but it means for lawyers, they can’t sit back and expect work to be delivered. You’ll have to go and obtain work.”

This said, Douglas noted there exists a serious disconnect between practitioners and clients in terms of expectations about what can reasonably be achieved or undertaken with legal work.

It is, he said, perhaps greater than it’s probably ever been, given the erosion of the profession’s status. Lawyers, he mused, are now service providers.

“Thirty years ago, I could send a letter to somebody five days after they gave me instructions, and they’d say thank you. If I did that now, they wouldn’t pay my bill. So, I think what we’re seeing is a smarter group of people utilising law more effectively,” he said.

“The total spend on law hasn’t grown over the last five years in Australia, yet the amount of law being practised has. [That] shows you people are much more astute in their use of lawyers, and lawyers are much more astute in the manner in which they deliver services.”

Unfortunately, there remains a “level of dissonance” among lawyers in adapting to such a changing landscape.

He said there are “two different trains that are travelling, which should be in parallel, but are going sideways” – these are technology and client relationships.

“On the tech front, if you look at what we do, we use it all the time to actually sharpen our focus on documents, on research. It’s fantastic. So, I think that really improves both the margin for lawyers and also the speed and accuracy of what we do,” he said.

“The second level is the development of deeper relationships, which, unfortunately, is not being taken up by lawyers in the same way, and they are becoming more and more distant from the people they’re providing service to.”

As such, he said, “we’re starting to see this massive growth in tendering and trying to sell our services, when, in fact, what holds you, allows you to make mistakes, allows you to give the best advice. The intimate relationships are not being focused on”.

Ultimately, for Douglas, what is nice about such shifting sands in the market is the chance to bind happiness to purpose and connection in his daily work.

“As you become older as a practitioner, and those relationships deepen, one of the lovely things is you’re connected into a whole lot of different circles of life. It’s a much richer life that you have as well,” he said.

“People don’t just contact you as a lawyer, they contact you as a friend, they seek advice. You’re able to provide access to other skilled friends who are around to provide services. So, it broadens your access, broadens your client base, but it brings happiness.”

To listen to the full episode with Andrew Douglas, click here.