Legal Profession Future in Today’s World

One prediction that can safely be made is that the pattern of rapid - and sometimes painful - change which the legal profession has experienced in recent years will continue for the foreseeable future. Professor Richard Susskind, author of The Future Of Law, has argued that 'the legal marketplace will change beyond recognition as we progress into the information society.

The impact of change will not be confined to any one area of the profession. A variety of factors explain the pressure for change - not just the widespread use and availability of sophisticated information technology, but also external pressures such as the government's attitude to legal aid funding and the need to satisfy clients who demand an ever-improving level of service. Certainly, the trend of recent years towards increasing specialization seems bound to continue.


The way in which change affects solicitors' firms will vary depending on the size and location of those firms. The major London practices are already international in nature. They look at the demand for legal services in a global context and are, for instance, alert to possible competition from major US law firms as well as from the major accountancy practices. Both in London and the provinces, there will continue to be mergers between medium-sized firms in an increasingly competitive market place. Already there are major national and regional firms and they will be keen to seek further growth, typically by swallowing firms with few resources or by 'cherry-picking' particular individuals or teams of lawyers from rival firms.

Small firms and sole practitioners will continue to be hard pressed. Professor Susskind believes that generalists will find their business squeezed most 'as many of their traditional domains become systematized and productized, but the future is not without hope for them, especially if they can develop a particular niche. Much will also depend on the Law Society's ability to promote the interests of its members while ensuring that client service throughout the UK continues to improve as well as on wider social, economic and political factors.

With the Bar, leading players should continue to prosper but the tendency for barristers to seek positions within firms of solicitors and accountants that demand advocacy skills may become more pronounced. The trend towards larger sets of chambers will continue as economies of scale are sought and clients demand greater specialization. As with solicitors' firms, there will in many quarters be a perception that small is not beautiful, since it may be easier to cope with change in an environment where a sophisticated infrastructure can be afforded.

The in-house lawyer will be less and less likely to act as a legal jack-of-all-trades. As the law becomes more complex, it will become common for even large in-house legal departments to outsource work to major private practices. Developing satisfactory relationships with those outside lawyers will be a key task. For lawyers working in central and local government, the future will, as always, depend to a large extent on the funding available.

In general, the future for legal support workers and those engaged in allied professions looks bright. Again, the effective use of information technology will be crucial. Opportunities for minority groups should increase as traditional barriers continue (however slowly) to crumble and part-time working and home working will almost inevitably become more common than at present.