-
Recent posts - Recent comments
- Comment on Are blawgs an effective marketing tool? by Shaniatwain
- Comment on Tired of blogging? - tired of life by Nick Holmes
- Comment on Tired of blogging? - tired of life by Shaniatwain
- Comment on Tired of blogging? - tired of life by Itsonlyme
- Comment on Tired of blogging? - tired of life by Steve Matthews
- Comment on Tired of blogging? - tired of life by John Bolch
- Comment on #legalitshow anyone? by Mark Bower (Connectegrity)
- Comment on Are blawgs an effective marketing tool? by Michael Scutt@Jobsworth
Oct
16
Is the law a can of beans? (reprise)
Filed Under Future of law
Way back in 1999 I wrote a piece on the commoditisation of legal services which still resonates today.
Some lawyers are still arguing that there are so many potential pitfalls in using commoditised online services that the customer should always seek legal advice. For example, Angela Davis of Nottingham law firm Berryman warns that DIY divorce […]
By Nick Holmes, 16 October 2009
Oct
14
Having just penned my previous post on BigLaw, I browsed the latest issue of Legal Information Management and was riveted not by my own article therein :=), nor by any of the many other worthy articles, but by the Book Review at the end in which solicitor Gillian Bull rather comprehensively disses Susskind’s The End […]
By Nick Holmes, 14 October 2009
Feb
11
Reformation
Filed Under Future of law
Deep thought (as ever) from Jordan Furlong at Law21 on the future of lawyers a la Susskind. He concludes:
If we take another meaning of “end” – an outcome worked toward or an objective for which effort is expended, rather than the more popular meaning of “disappearance” — then we could say that this is a […]
By Nick Holmes, 11 February 2009
Jan
5
The future of lawyers
Filed Under Articles, Future of law
First published in the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers, January 2009.
In The End of Lawyers? (Oxford University Press) Richard Susskind challenges the legal profession to ask what elements of their current work could be undertaken more quickly, more cheaply, more efficiently or to a higher quality using new methods.
He makes his case firstly by mapping the […]
By Nick Holmes, 5 January 2009
Dec
31
2009
Filed Under Outsourcing, Future of law
I usually leave it until the last minute to frame my “binary law” predictions for the year ahead. After all, a lot can happen in a month and it’s of course helpful to have the benefit of everyone else’s predictions first!
In the SCL IT & law predictions for 2009 (batch 1, batch 2, batch 3) […]
By Nick Holmes, 31 December 2008
Dec
30
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing
Filed Under Future of law
I recently commented far too favourably on the the new Law Society Gazette site. There is no way to browse the archives which is frustrating. But to give the site some juice, the opinion sections in particular should be inviting our comments.
I’d have liked, for example, to respond to Clive Wismayer, Solicitor, Great Bookham, who […]
By Nick Holmes, 30 December 2008
Dec
12
What about clients?
Filed Under Future of law
In a series of recent posts, Jordan Furlong gives his slant on the arguments at the heart of Richard Susskind’s thesis:
Decoupling price from cost in legal services:
In order to turn a profit, firms will be forced to streamline their costs of production, whatever they might be.
The market doesn’t care
clients don’t care if you make money […]
By Nick Holmes, 12 December 2008
Dec
10
The future of lawyers
Filed Under Future of law
I have not yet found on the public access web anything approaching a review of Richard Susskind’s The End of Lawyers? (Oxford University Press). So I must conclude I’m one of the few who have actually read it from cover to cover. To say I’ve read it is a bit of an exaggeration; I confess […]
By Nick Holmes, 10 December 2008
Jul
14
A wake-up call to lawyers
Filed Under Articles, Future of law
Professor Richard Susskind is, as I write, no doubt completing the final draft of his forthcoming treatise, The End of Lawyers? to be published in June by Oxford University Press.
More than 12 years ago he wrote its predecessor, The Future of Law. Then only a few of us had awoken to the internet; only a […]
By Nick Holmes, 14 July 2008
Mar
4
The death of the high street practice?
Filed Under Future of law
John Bolch on Family Lore relates the sad tale of local (Kent) firms who are shedding staff by the dozen due to the property slump. And following their conveyancing business may well be their whole business. Anecdotal evidence is that HIPs are as much to blame as the sub-prime crisis.
Who agrees? Who disagrees? Who cares? […]
By Nick Holmes, 4 March 2008