A YEAR IN THE LAW 2016-17
Several high-profile court cases in the last year offer an eerily accurate reflection of some of the key issues that have dominated our news feeds – from Brexit and parliamentary sovereignty, to the rights of workers in the so-called ‘gig economy’, to the rights of terminally ill children. But it is not just in court that the legal profession intersects with economics, politics and social concerns. It is impossible to understand the legal landscape – from key legislation, firms’ billing models or recent mergers – without appreciating how closely intertwined all these issues are. This article takes a look back at some of the key legal developments from the last 12 months, placing them in context. Closer to home for future lawyers is the bombshell that training for both solicitors and barristers is being overhauled, with big changes due by 2020. But while the so-called ‘super exam’ for qualifying solicitors and new training route for aspiring barristers are major developments for students and applicants, these are small fry compared to the transformations facing the legal profession as a whole. Technological advances and the increased competition heralded by innovative, non-traditional legal businesses will have a much bigger impact on the long-term career landscape. Hasta la vista The legal profession has never returned to the heights that it enjoyed before the global financial crisis in 2008, due in large part to
clients’ increasing demands to pay less for legal services. The march of artificial intelligence (AI) is putting further costs pressures on firms, as cutting-edge technology means that some tasks previously reserved for humans could soon be performed by machines. Leading legal thinker and IT adviser to the lord chief justice, Richard Susskind, has updated his influential books Tomorrow’s Lawyers and The Future of the Professions to mark the end of the “age of denial”, during which law firms and UK legal institutions ignored the rise of AI. Susskind argues that we are now in a period of resourcing, where firms and new so-called ‘Tesco law’ entrants to the market are finding people to do to the work they need for less money through outsourcing, as was the case in the manufacturing industry during its own technological revolution over 20 years ago. The trend sees many firms outsourcing their HR functions or application processes – and helps to explain the growing trend for employing paralegals on fixed-term contracts. The heightened competition among firms spurred by such advances is also speeding up the rate of innovation. He predicts that this resourcing period will continue from 2017 to around 2020, after which a decade of disruption will ensue, where a key task for lawyers will be to work on new ways of delivering legal services. While Terminator-style robots probably won’t be coming to usurp the lawyer’s privileged position of trusted adviser, it is likely that clients in pursuit of cheaper, faster services could sacrifice the human touch in many legal functions. Daily fail The competition and innovation among firms and chambers is a natural reflection of the tech-driven, globalised world in which we now live. However, when austerity policies and the unforgiving nature of the free market are applied to every function of society, many people slip between
the gaps. The legal aid system, which reached crisis point in 2017, is a stark reminder of this. Although the principles of UK democracy guarantee that all citizens have legal rights and are equal before the law, regardless of whether they are rich or poor, this is no longer at all the case in practice. Since 2010, successive governments have cut funding for legal aid so drastically that the justice system is now only accessible to the well off – everyone else either has to represent themselves on an uneven playing field or be denied access to their legal rights altogether. This situation reflects one of the prevailing ideologies of our time – an acceptance that living in a free market creates winners and losers, a belief that taxation and government spending on public services are undesirable because they stifle market competition and an assumption that the poorest in society have failed in some way and deserve their lot. While law centres have been hollowed out and closed across the country, legal aid firms are having to turn down unviable work. The result of this is that many people are now forced to represent themselves in court, despite having no legal training – and even when the other side can afford a lawyer. Not only does this slow proceedings to a crawl and make the court system wasteful and inefficient, it also raises serious questions about our attitude as a society to justice. In June Lord Neuberger, the outgoing president of the Supreme Court, argued that the situation is so unjust that it requires a complete rethink: “Many people [are faced] with the unedifying choice of being driven from the courts or having to represent themselves… [it] verges on the hypocritical for governments to bestow rights on citizens while doing very little to ensure that those rights are enforceable.” Prisons break In August the president of the Prison Governors Association, Andrea
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