Law new describes practices and strategies that offer legal assistance in entirely different ways. It can include working with underserved communities, creating innovative strategies for reaching clients and implementing techniques that haven’t been part of traditional law practice in the past. When used effectively, the ideas behind law new can be a powerful and effective tool for increasing profitability and client satisfaction.
One of the key characteristics that distinguish law new is the use of collaboration. This can be across the firm or among firms, between the firm and other businesses, or even within a single industry segment. The legal industry can learn from the broader business world about collaboration’s many forms and how to embrace it to its own advantage.
Taking a cue from the broader business world, law firms are increasingly collaborating on various projects and initiatives with non-legal businesses that have nothing to do with the legal field. This is not a new idea, but it has been made more practical and viable by the rapid pace of change in the business world.
The automotive industry is one example of collaboration in action, wherein rival GM and Ford work together on a variety of joint ventures. This collaboration is also seen in pharmaceutical companies partnering to develop new medicines. The legal field can also collaborate and work with competitors to create value for their clients.
In the future, law firms and in-house legal departments will work with each other and other service providers more closely. They will also work with their corporate customers and society at large. This will result in a legal industry that looks more like its corporate and societal clients – more diverse, cognitively, demographically, culturally and experientially. It will also integrate its delivery structures, erasing artificial, lawyer-created distinctions between provider sources and incorporating platform-based platforms that deliver agile, fluid, on-demand resources with verifiable, material expertise and experience.
Local Law 144 of 2021 requires that any employer who wants to use an automated employment decision tool must conduct a bias audit and notify job applicants. This is a significant step towards ensuring that these tools are not discriminatory.