The Law Society’s Future of Law and Innovation in the Profession (FLIP) conference held in Sydney in September saw more than 400 lawyers attend to hear local and international experts speak on the future of legal practice.
1. Firms will start thinking like start-ups
Forget robot lawyers – the “Uberisation” of legal services poses the biggest threat to the legal industry. That’s according to US-based legal innovator and professor of law Daniel Martin Katz, who delivered the keynote speech at the 2018 FLIP Conference.
Katz, a professor of law at Illinois Institute of Technology and Michigan State University, said recent media reports had caused misdirected panic among lawyers by focusing on the so-called “rise of the robo-lawyer” in a shrinking jobs market. But, he said, the most significant threat to lawyers’ wages and firm profitability would come from smaller start-ups and fusion businesses such as consulting and accounting firms.