Tribunal reform steals the show

One of the great things about Solicitors Journal Live is the opportunity not only to share a platform with some of the country's leading legal minds, but to have them in the audience too.

Following on from Lord Woolf's keynote, it is no surprise that another lively debate occurred when I discussed the future of employment law with barrister and employment judge Martin Downs, of 1 Crown Office Row. What was surprising, perhaps, was the direction the communal prophesying took, with tribunal reform taking centre stage.

It's no secret that employment lawyers have been concerned for their own futures for some time. The threat doesn't, yet, come from a declining number of human workers, nor solely from the government's reforms to increasingly employer-friendly legislation. Although these have and do play a part in the statistical forecasts, together with the introduction of tribunal fees and headline-grabbing numbers of 'zero hours' (801,000) and self-employed workers (4.6 million), they only tell part of the story.

Employment law has come a long way in the past 20 years, and has seen the introduction of more legislation and administrative reform than most practice areas. Quick, successive change has singled out the sector as being uniquely accessible to a commercial client audience. The never-ending supply of legal news has led to more than a fair share of briefings, newsletters, e-bulletins, seminars, mock-tribunals, and training sessions from firms.

There is very real risk that we have over-trained our HR clients, by giving them the tools of our trade. The only concession is that they don't have the instruction manual and the costs of repairing a botched job are greater than getting it right in the first place. The rise in litigants in person is an unwelcome testament to this.

Against the current employment landscape, this is surely of concern. Yet when contemplating the future of the sector, it is tribunal reform that steals the attention. With the Supreme Court set to hear the case against tribunal fees later this year, the Law Society proposing a streamlined, four-tier tribunal, and the senior president of tribunals, Sir Ernest Ryder, advocating a 'one-stop shop' for justice on all matters, the future must be digital. If it is to succeed, however, it will demand up-front investment, the prospect of which remains unlikely in these financially austere times.

In the foreseeable future, contentious matters reaching the tribunals are unlikely to significantly rise. The financial disincentive presented by tribunal fees, the surprise success of ACAS early conciliation, and a dogged reluctance of some employment judges to award any legal costs to the successful party will not encourage a return to 90s nostalgia for practitioners. And then come the robots.

The future threat to practitioners will come from the rise of technology and its impact on the pool of potential human clients. Scaremongerers have suggested that artificial intelligence has the potential to replace jobs and professions at all levels, with accountants, call-centre workers, and the retail salesforce expected to be made redundant - in all senses - within the next two decades. According to one delegate at SJ Live, the only safe job will be hairdressing and, might I add, coding. Now, where are my scissors? SJ

Kevin Poulter is SJ's editor at large and a partner at Child & Child