Law new is more than just a catchall industry term – it’s about providing legal help in ways that have never been done before. This can be anything from engaging with underserved communities to developing strategies that are more cost effective than traditional fee arrangements. It’s about creating the kind of help that clients need while also generating additional revenue and satisfaction for the firm. This is an area of the practice that’s worth exploring by all firms and understanding how it works.
The evolution of new law is the result of a number of interconnected trends. Technology is one of them, but the real driver is change management and human adaptation. The most impactful law new efforts will be those that drive customer/end-user value and outcomes while integrating technological change with a strategic plan to deliver that value. This will be a team sport involving legal practitioners, “techies,” process/project managers, data analysts, and allied law firm professionals. It will be a shift from a legacy economic model that depends on input to an output-driven, customer-centric, tech-enabled, multidisciplinary resource platform backed by measurable, verifiable expertise and experience. It will be based on a sustainable profit model that prioritizes high net promoter scores and client impact.
Those are the kinds of changes that will drive law new and allow legal consumers to have the best of both worlds: low-cost, fast, transparent, scalable, and secure legal services delivered by a diverse range of providers. Those providers will be legal firms and in-house legal departments, alternative service providers (ALSP’s), and the other emerging law practices, technologies, and models that have the potential to reinvent law for the benefit of consumers, businesses, and society at large.
Law firm leaders have been discussing new law for years. While they’ve been able to implement some of these concepts, most haven’t yet produced real change or created genuine value for their clients. The good news is that there’s no time like the present to turn the corner on this journey and begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
SS 209 of 2019 amends the City’s information security laws to bring them into alignment with those in New York State. Specifically, it requires the disclosure of private and sensitive personal information to affected persons when it is believed that the information was accessed, disclosed or used by an unauthorized person or entity, as well as additional reporting requirements to the Office of Cyber Command and the City’s Chief Privacy Officer.