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Personally, I think it’s a brilliant time to start a career in law as a non-lawyer. Why? Because they NEED us! The market is increasingly saturated and the differentiation levers are becoming increasingly difficult to identify. Excellent client service is one of those differentiators. The pandemic accelerated client requests for different delivery models, from the use of collaboration tools such as MS Teams and Slack or WeChat in China, to provision of advice not via email or traditional documents but through access to digital platforms and/or through APIs.
To deliver excellent client service across any industry requires a multi-disciplinary team with different skills and capabilities. Take the restaurant industry for example. If the waiting staff are fantastic but the chef is awful you will not be going back anytime soon. Law is just the same. If the advice delivered is superb but it takes three weeks for the firm to clear you for AML and conflicts, or you receive marketing emails that bear no relevance to the job you do then your overall client experience is damaged.
There is a definite recognition within the industry law firms can benefit from the skills and revenue generating capabilities non lawyers can provide and the overall service delivered to clients. Whether that’s in the marketing and business development team through advanced client relationship management, digital marketing, and advertising, or whether it’s the alternative delivery mechanisms for the legal services themselves, which incorporate data science and engineering. There is scope to broaden the skill set and capabilities within a law firm that don’t require a law degree. And how do we best develop those new skills within ourselves? And in the teams for which we’re responsible?
Law has traditionally been a very stuffy industry but I think if you look around other organisations and industries the skills that are required to take law to the next level are there in abundance. I feel it’s very important in the legal industry that we stop being so precious and look outside the walls of our ivory tower.
