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Any way this market can be disrupted? Maybe through some more efficient/decentralized/AI-based services that would do much of the lawyer's jobs, forcing them to

Any way this market can be disrupted? Maybe through some more efficient/decentralized/AI-based services that would do much of the lawyer's jobs, forcing them to reduce their billing rates?

mirceagoia 15y ago
There are services like legalzoom.com ...but they didn't seem to make a scratch in this world. Or at least not big enough.
scott_s 15y ago
The author is doing just that. He talks about it at the end.
antonej 15y ago
Lots of people are trying (including me) in many different ways. No doubt technology can help in various ways, but I think the single most promising change is top-notch lawyers breaking away from megafirms to start their own smaller shops with a much leaner cost structure. That's what I did, but I didn't want to make the article all about tooting my own horn.
wavephorm 15y ago
Docracy was posted to HN recently: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3666478 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3666478 It's really limited or just starting out, no EULA's or anything that I can personally actually use.
- ubervero 15y ago
  Yep, we're getting started, but we might get an EULA soon, stay tuned
masebase 15y ago
This space is really starting to heat up. There are already a good number of new legal startups, and I think it's only beginning.
rprasad 15y ago
You mean like Lexis, Westlaw, LoisLaw, LegalZoom, and RocketLawyer have been doing for the past decade or so? The problem is that at some point, you're paying a premium for a lawyer's skill in knowing what to do and for taking on the risk of being wrong, since you can sue the lawyer for malpractice if they fuck up. Think of it like programmers: with all that open source code out there and all those GUIs, programmer's rates should be going down. Instead they're going up (at least for the good-to-great programmers): once the market has corrected for reduced costs, it readjusts upwards to correct for increased competition for talent.
rprasad 15y ago
The irony is that BigLaw was the disruption -- the standard legal model until the 1960s was to have small, local firms. What we think of today as mid-tier firms would have been considered behemoths in those days.

Any way this market can be disrupted? Maybe through some more efficient/decentralized/AI-based services that would do much of the lawyer's jobs, forcing them to reduce their billing rates?

mirceagoia 15y ago

There are services like legalzoom.com ...but they didn't seem to make a scratch in this world. Or at least not big enough.

scott_s 15y ago

The author is doing just that. He talks about it at the end.

antonej 15y ago

Lots of people are trying (including me) in many different ways. No doubt technology can help in various ways, but I think the single most promising change is top-notch lawyers breaking away from megafirms to start their own smaller shops with a much leaner cost structure. That's what I did, but I didn't want to make the article all about tooting my own horn.

wavephorm 15y ago

Docracy was posted to HN recently: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3666478 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3666478 It's really limited or just starting out, no EULA's or anything that I can personally actually use.

ubervero 15y ago
Yep, we're getting started, but we might get an EULA soon, stay tuned

masebase 15y ago

This space is really starting to heat up. There are already a good number of new legal startups, and I think it's only beginning.

rprasad 15y ago

You mean like Lexis, Westlaw, LoisLaw, LegalZoom, and RocketLawyer have been doing for the past decade or so? The problem is that at some point, you're paying a premium for a lawyer's skill in knowing what to do and for taking on the risk of being wrong, since you can sue the lawyer for malpractice if they fuck up. Think of it like programmers: with all that open source code out there and all those GUIs, programmer's rates should be going down. Instead they're going up (at least for the good-to-great programmers): once the market has corrected for reduced costs, it readjusts upwards to correct for increased competition for talent.

rprasad 15y ago

The irony is that BigLaw was the disruption -- the standard legal model until the 1960s was to have small, local firms. What we think of today as mid-tier firms would have been considered behemoths in those days.