The lawyer of the future: how to remain relevant

Remaining relevant and resilient in an ever-changing environment

Agility, technological aptitude, and interdisciplinary skills have become key requirements for a legal professional to succeed going forward.  These capabilities enable lawyers to respond appropriately to and adapt and thrive under ever-changing conditions.

Lawyers are currently challenged to review how they service their clients.  Technological advancement and alternative service offerings provide clients with the opportunity to gain more value from legal services.  The question is whether lawyers are willing to embrace and implement these new ideas in their daily work and whether legal work is compatible with these ideas.

In our webinar, we aim to determine international and local trends in predicting skills required for lawyers in the future. We’ll look at approaches to legal work such as Legal Design Thinking, which challenge traditional perceptions of what exactly a lawyer should be able to do.  Closely linked to Legal Design Thinking, is the use of plain legal language in the drafting of legal instruments.  The webinar provides a platform to reconsider the merits of this, not so new, movement in legal drafting.  The webinar also aims to start a conversation among South African lawyers on skills not traditionally required of lawyers, but which would enable them to increase the demand for their legal work.