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What is the cause of this? Computer automation? More work can be done by paralegal? Fewer court cases?

godzillabrennus 10y ago
Mostly automation. E-Discovery companies have dramatically reduced the cost for discovery. It used to require a room full of lawyers to discover evidence but now it is possible to have one person in a room full of computers to automate 10 such cases.
- imjustsaying 10y ago
  How much have legal costs to the client been reduced due to this increase in efficiency?
  - slgeorge 10y ago
    > How much have legal costs to the client been reduced due to this increase in efficiency? It's pretty hard to answer that one as it depends on the type of legal services. Anecdata only... My experience is from a UK based perspective. Over the last decade I reckon the likelihood of using an external firm for standard commercial work (sales contracts/standard employment) has dropped dramatically (80-90%). There are lots of reasonably trained lawyers coming out of the large firms, so you can hire an internal resource or use a boutique firm. They can do almost all that work. International work remains the bread and butter of the large firms. Where you're dealing in jurisdictions that you're uncomfortable or your internal resources are not trained for. Super large deals where (frankly) the insurance from the law firm is worth it. Or specialist matters (complex IP) where the business risk is too significant. Litigation is a different matter. No fundamental difference there in my experience. Perhaps on the administration side, but that's often a rounding error compared to the costs of the partners/counsel. Someone said earlier that 'commercial management' has improved. As a non-legal specialist managing lawyers that is definitely a cultural change that the legal profession is embracing but still adapting to.
danieltillett 10y ago
Peak legal. Automation is affecting discovery and the demand for the junior lawyers that used to do it, but there just isn't the demand growth to keep up with the supply growth of lawyers.
- Animats 10y ago
  The junior work is being deskilled. Paralegals are doing some of the work junior lawyers used to do, and search and recordkeeping systems are doing much of the work paralegals used to do. A friend of mine is an attorney at a big Silicon Valley law firm, and she says that most of the low-level work is now automated.
- gozur88 10y ago
  Yeah, it's the perfect storm of automation and an industry that assumed growth would go like gangbusters forever. And by "industry" I mean law schools - law schools were (and maybe still are) big profit centers for universities, so they were expanded as quickly as possible.
  - danieltillett 10y ago
    Law is relatively cheap to teach compared to the hard sciences and engineering. You can charge students a lot so it is not surprising that universities want to keep the lawyer production pipeline open and gushing.

Mostly automation. E-Discovery companies have dramatically reduced the cost for discovery. It used to require a room full of lawyers to discover evidence but now it is possible to have one person in a room full of computers to automate 10 such cases.

imjustsaying 10y ago
How much have legal costs to the client been reduced due to this increase in efficiency?
- slgeorge 10y ago
  > How much have legal costs to the client been reduced due to this increase in efficiency? It's pretty hard to answer that one as it depends on the type of legal services. Anecdata only... My experience is from a UK based perspective. Over the last decade I reckon the likelihood of using an external firm for standard commercial work (sales contracts/standard employment) has dropped dramatically (80-90%). There are lots of reasonably trained lawyers coming out of the large firms, so you can hire an internal resource or use a boutique firm. They can do almost all that work. International work remains the bread and butter of the large firms. Where you're dealing in jurisdictions that you're uncomfortable or your internal resources are not trained for. Super large deals where (frankly) the insurance from the law firm is worth it. Or specialist matters (complex IP) where the business risk is too significant. Litigation is a different matter. No fundamental difference there in my experience. Perhaps on the administration side, but that's often a rounding error compared to the costs of the partners/counsel. Someone said earlier that 'commercial management' has improved. As a non-legal specialist managing lawyers that is definitely a cultural change that the legal profession is embracing but still adapting to.

danieltillett 10y ago

Peak legal. Automation is affecting discovery and the demand for the junior lawyers that used to do it, but there just isn't the demand growth to keep up with the supply growth of lawyers.

Animats 10y ago
The junior work is being deskilled. Paralegals are doing some of the work junior lawyers used to do, and search and recordkeeping systems are doing much of the work paralegals used to do. A friend of mine is an attorney at a big Silicon Valley law firm, and she says that most of the low-level work is now automated.
gozur88 10y ago
Yeah, it's the perfect storm of automation and an industry that assumed growth would go like gangbusters forever. And by "industry" I mean law schools - law schools were (and maybe still are) big profit centers for universities, so they were expanded as quickly as possible.
- danieltillett 10y ago
  Law is relatively cheap to teach compared to the hard sciences and engineering. You can charge students a lot so it is not surprising that universities want to keep the lawyer production pipeline open and gushing.