Law New is a catchall industry term for new legal services offerings. The term has been applied to firms, startups and even law firm subsidiaries augmenting traditional practices with innovative ideas that create value for clients. The concept offers fresh icing on a stale cake and is not a panacea for the industry’s problems but it can play a role in addressing some client issues in innovative ways. A well thought out plan making use of these new law techniques can offer the help that some clients need without impacting other areas of legal practice that might be the primary focus of a firm’s business.
New law is largely a matter of embracing collaboration, a key element in solving significant global challenges. The speed, complexity and fluidity of the business landscape require a collective effort that transcends the limited capacity and expertise of individual functions, enterprises, and stakeholder groups. A collaborative process is required to better serve the complexities of legal consumers and society at large, reduce significant lost opportunity costs due to protracted disputes, free up management’s time to focus on core business objectives, increase efficiency, improve risk assessment/management and decision-making and generate high net promoter scores (NPS).
Legal services providers will be required to collaborate with other legal stakeholders to provide comprehensive solutions that meet today’s complex business needs. A shift in provider mentality is required from one of self-congratulatory exclusivity and profit preservation to customer impact and enhanced experience. A purpose-driven legal function and enterprise will lead the way.
The new law model will include the following:
1. Integration of legal supply chain, erasing artificial, lawyer-created distinctions between provider sources. Law firms and in-house legal departments remain the dominant source of legal service delivery; however, they operate from different economic models, cultures, remits, tech platforms, and data and end-user expectations. New law will deliver through an integrated platform-based legal delivery structure – removing siloed resources, reducing cost and risk, and increasing the velocity of legal work.
2. Multidisciplinary and agile legal workforces anchored by the mastery of data. The new law workforce must be able to harness and share data internally, across the legal supply chain and with other stakeholders. It must be able to capture and analyze data, produce insights, identify, assess, mitigate, and avoid risks, and enable strategic and operational decisions that enhance business and consumer value.
3. Innovation that produces impactful change to legal consumers and society-at-large. A new law strategy must integrate collaboration with fit-for-purpose technology – not be driven by the desire to be seen as an innovator – but by a desire to solve a real issue that produces high NPS for legal providers and the broader legal ecosystem.
New laws and rules can be introduced in either House of Congress through a sponsoring senator or representative. The legislation goes through a series of steps including research, discussion and changes before being voted on. The bill must pass both houses to become a federal law.