Legal Week Future of Legal Services Forum 2011

The legal profession is on the cusp of a transition, the effects of which will have wide-ranging consequences for all forms of legal practice. While the Legal Services Act will undoubtedly cause a shift change in the legal model, its effects will not be as significant for large City-based law firms or those keen to hold on to the traditional legal model. What is of wider interest, and some say more pressing, is the issue of how to regulate the profession and how to deal with complaints handling going forward.

Another critical theme is the transition of the legal landscape towards a more technology-driven and multi-sourced method of resourcing legal work in the modern law firm. As clients demand lower costs and a more transparent client relationship with law firms, the pressure to re-engineer existing processes will increase.