Richard Susskind

Tényleg vége az klasszikus értelemben vett ügyvédi munkának? Lehet akkora hatással az IT megjelenése, térhódítása és folyamatos fejlődése, hogy e szakma eltűnjék? Vagy elegendő, ha az ügyvédek is felveszik a ritmust, s nyitottabbá válnak a számítógépek által, az internet segítségével végezhető munkára? Ilyen és ehhez hasonló kérdéseket boncolgat Richard Susskind elsőként 2008-ban megjelenő műve. Válasza a sorok között könnyen kiolvasható: nem lehet útjába állni a technikai fejlődének.

A kötet azt boncolgatja, hogy milyen módszerek, milyen egyéb munkavégzési lehetőségek kellenek ahhoz, hogy az ügyvédség lépést tarthasson e fejlődéssel. Susskind kiemeli a jövő jogászaiban a gondolkodás megváltoztatásának fontosságát, a nem jogvégzett emberek munkavégzésének lehetőségét, az ügyvédi munka szolgáltatásként való értelmezését.

Ajánljuk már ügyvédként dolgozó szakembereknek, ügyvédjelölteknek, egyéb jogászoknak, valamint minden, a jövőjéért felelősen gondolkodó értelmiséginek.… (mehr)

This is a thought provoking book about on-going and predicted future changes in the practice of law and how legal services will be billed and delivered in the future. The book is not an "anti-lawyer" diatribe, as you might guess from the title, but it does lay down challenges to lawyers to consider what elements of their current workload could be undertaken differently - more quickly, cheaply, efficiently, or to a higher quality - using alternative methods of working. Susskind argues, for example, that the market is increasingly unlikely to tolerate expensive lawyers for tasks (guiding, advising, drafting, researching, problem-solving, and more) that can be equally or better performed by smart systems and processes. He predicts the rise, within large law firms and corporate legal departments, of senior legal professionals whose function will be to serve as a legal process analyst. "The legal process analyst is the individual who will analyze a legal matter (a deal or dispute), decompose it into its constituent tasks ***, assess the most efficient and appropriate way to carry out each, and identify the best suppliers from whom to source this work." He calls this first step "decomposition and proposed multi-sourcing” of the work, where multi-sourcing will include out-sourcing legal work to lower cost attorneys and non-attorneys located outside of the traditional law firm and, indeed, often in foreign countries. After this initial assessment is made by the legal process analyst in the law firm, a legal process manager will then swing into play to "ensure that all providers complete their decomposed work packages on time and to budget, and will also be responsible for quality controlling the various packages, supervising their output and delivery, and pulling the packages together into one seamless service for the client." (pp. xlvi-xlvii) Susskind refers to just some of these steps and processes as "commoditization, computerization, decomposing, multi-sourcing." He predicts that law firms will evolve into different forms of practice in the future and he says that the scope of on-going innovation in law firms will be from less efficient to more efficient processes, which he summarizes as follows: bespoke > standardized > systematized > packaged > commoditized. Susskind's observations and predictions arise mainly from his experiences in the United Kingdom while working as a British lawyer, law professor, and consultant to the legal profession. However, most of his ideas are transferable to the practice of law in the United States. Important limitations of his book include that he does not give consideration to the ethical rules that govern lawyer conduct in each of our fifty states and before the federal bench. Many of the concepts that he is able to contemplate in England (fee splitting among lawyers, fee splitting between lawyers and non-lawyers, and capital investment in law firms by non-attorneys, just to name three) would require serious analysis and changes to the rules governing lawyer conduct in the United States. Although the book is controversial, it provokes thought. I would recommend it to Managing Partners and anyone interested in the practice of law, including those who will oppose or feel uncomfortable with Susskind's ideas. After all, as a brilliant non-attorney friend of mine reminded me after learning about Susskind's book, “The future is dynamic and a good leader needs to understand the dynamics even if he doesn’t like them.”… (mehr)