Tomorrow's lawyers notably absent from the Global Law Summit

Kevin Poulter explains that the inevitable change the profession faces isn't totally out of lawyers' control

Where will the legal profession be in 2050? This was the question posed by Richard Susskind OBE as he led a discussion on the technical evolution of the law from Magna Carta to artificial intelligence. He invited us all to take a step back and ask ourselves, as lawyers, what do we add and how can we do it better?

Susskind is someone who is called on from time to time to do again what he did in 1996: foresee the future. Having been metaphorically dunked and tried by a once mocking profession (and Law Society) back then, he now has the swagger and conviction of a man who demands to be taken seriously. But rather than making any promises to change the profession himself, Susskind simply lays out a buffet for us to taste.

If it is accepted that change in the profession is inevitable, we must also accept that we must react to that change or, alternatively, shape it ourselves. Other professions have already begun to challenge the status quo and monopoly the traditional legal firm held. Price Waterhouse Cooper has said on record that it wants to be one of the top 20 global law firms and have already set out on that path by doing what law firms are reluctant, or unwilling, to do - try out new things.

Some firms have put their toe in water, identifying more flexible approaches to services we provide, to the advantage of their clients and their lawyers. New options, such as Berwin Leighton Paisner's 'Lawyers on Demand' and Allen & Overy's 'Peerpoint', match legal services and lawyers for projects and interim roles, passing savings on to clients they might otherwise have lost.

By breaking down each stage of the legal process and rethinking how we approach it, there is a good chance we will make the whole experience more efficient and cost-effective. As a profession, we must stop looking back and embrace opportunities to use technology to serve us better.

Alongside Susskind, Susan Taylor Martin of Thomson Reuters and Allen & Overy's senior worldwide partner David Morley reminded us that clients, especially commercial clients, would not go back to the pre-recession halcyon days of uncapped spending on legal services. Increased competition driven by technology, the liberalisation of the legal industry and globalisation each mean that the demand for efficiency is even greater and inevitably falls to us to deliver.

It is generally agreed that middle market firms will suffer the most in the evolving legal marketplace, with large firms growing ever larger and small firms becoming increasingly niche or specialist. It is the middle ground which will be the last to embrace change and then only when the pain of staying where they are is less than pain caused by change.

As another Allen & Overy partner, Guy Beringer, acknowledged, the future of the legal profession wasn't the panel or those assembled in the room, but "sadly the ticket price meant that a lot of students couldn't be here." That didn't mean that they too couldn't learn from the lessons shared. Susskind noted that when delivering seminars and conducting research around the world, the most conservative audience is one made up of students who have a universal sense of disbelief and look of 'why did no one tell us?'

The future of the profession is in the hands of a new generation that will no longer adhere to traditional boundaries of what a lawyer is or should be. We will each be required to have new skills, and universities and colleges will be forced to revisit a curriculum which "hasn't changed since the 1970s". But when these changes come, there is a hope that the profession will be more accessible, even if it looks nothing like what we have become used to.

Kevin Poulter, editor at large

#SJPOULTER 

editorial@solicitorsjournal.co.uk