Recently in a discussion in ‘legal futures’, one of the groups I belong to on LinkedIn, and created in the UK, they were discussing the impact of having legal kiosks in Walmart stores in Ontario. Wow! Lawyers in the UK are talking about innovation and disruption in the Canadian Legal Market? You got to know that if Walmart is getting into the legal business, they see a real opportunity. How long will it be before we see them popping up in all of their stores across Canada. If Walmart is getting in to the business of legal services, how long before Target does too? And so on.
But back to the legal futures discussion. I found it fascinating one of the lawyers was spending so much time complaining about the ‘new reality’. I wanted to suggest to him that instead of complaining about it, perhaps he should focus that attention on figuring out how to be a part of creating the future. He just kept bringing up challenge after challenge and how tough it is. If you can hear someone whining in their writing, that’s what it sounded like.
I also wanted to point out to him that lawyers’ challenges have finally caught up to those that your clients have been dealing with for years. Greater access to information, greater competition (and not just from other lawyers, but other service providers), technology, social media, clients from small to large wanting better value, and the list goes on and on.
