28 BusIness AUGUST 2019
feature
I
n April this year, Kim
Kardashian revealed she was
studying to become a lawyer,
with plans to take the bar in
2022.
Kardashian’s decision
comes at a time when the
sector has undergone a major shake
up, making it more appealing and
accessible to a broader cross section of
the public.
“Law is now perceived as less fusty
than it once was,” says Hannah Cottam,
group director at Manchester
recruitment specialists The Sellick
Partnership.
“Young people are becoming more
attracted to the concept of justice
and it really appeals to those
who want to give something
back to society.”
Disruptor firms,
technological
advances,
globalisation and a
change in
customer
expectations has
led to a significant
upheaval in the
shape and structure
of the profession over
the past five years.
Jamie Whalebone, head
of legal service delivery and
transformation at DWF, a global
legal business headquartered in
Manchester, explains.
“New technologies have exposed
inefficiency and provided the
opportunity to change how we work
and deliver legal services.
“Clients are increasingly alive to this
and expect their external counsel to be
likewise.
“Law has become more transparent,
more structured in approach and
more collaborative in delivery.
“Legal stars of the future will have to
navigate the constant changing shape
of the legal industry, which is driven by
new operating models and new
entrants to the market in the form of
alternative legal service providers.
“Increased globalisation and
international law, a shift towards being
more mature with data and increased
regulation like GDPR, mean it’s a lot to
consider when you are looking to
protect and pragmatically advise your
client.
“As we increasingly move to a digital
world in a professional and personal
capacity, smart phones, blockchain,
electric cars to name a few,
there will be issues to tackle in
the next five years that we
haven’t even envisaged
yet. It will be down to
the future legal stars
to overcome those
legal hurdles and
find ever more
innovative ways to
solve client
problems.”
To navigate these
changes, future
lawyers will need
greater soft skills such
as emotional intelligence
and resilience, whereas
historically the onus was on
academic expertise.
The legal stars of tomorrow will need
even stronger business acumen and
the ability to navigate risk, as they will
be required to make commercial
decisions, rather than be reliant on
client instruction.
“Over the past decade there has been
a huge growth in the number of
in-house legal teams versus private
practice teams operating in support ofbusinesses,” says Craig Chaplin, who is
a partner at DWF.
“This has the advantage of making
legal advice far more commercial. The
technician in a grey suit pontificating
and providing written advice from an
ivory tower is now not the preferred
way to deliver legal services - which is
good!
“The legal stars of the future have to
be very aware of the broader
framework that their legal advice
contributes to.
“They will have to be business and
risk aware whether in-house or in
private practice. They will have to give
proactive advice which will facilitate
the objectives of the business for which
they work.
“In other words, lawyers will have to
be business people who get off the
fence and give an opinion.”
Joanne Perritt, commercial property
partner at Myerson, a boutique law
firm based in Altrincham, concurs:
“Non-legal skills will be more
important than ever before for the
solicitors of the future.
“The constantly changing legal
environment means firms need to
recruit candidates who are adaptable,
flexible and able to embrace and even
seek out innovation and change.
“In fact, one of the Myerson corevalues, against which all candidates are
measured, is ‘we are innovative and
creative’. Developing knowledge of
marketing, business, technology and IT
has led to the creation of an
entrepreneurial ethos which is far
removed from the 1980’s culture of
presenteeism.”
Technology has also given rise to a
whole new range of jobs and
opportunities in the legal sphere which
will appeal to the current generation of
graduates.
“I always tell new recruits and
students that now is a great time to
start a career in law, with more role
options and new opportunities than
ever before,” says Whalebone.
“Future lawyers will have more tools,
techniques and mechanisms at their
disposal to deliver legal services than
their predecessors did.
“Whether that be new centralised
legal delivery teams to take some of the
load or more data and analytics to sift
through information, future lawyers
will be better placed as they look to
guide clients through whatever comes
at them.
“They will be able to choose
additional paths post qualification or
different routes entirely, such as legal
technology and roles specialising in
legal operations.”A new kind
of star
chamber
The legal sector is shaking off its stuffy
image and attracting a whole new breed of
star lawyers. Fiona Vlemmiks reports
Non-legal skills will be
more important than
ever before for the
solicitors of the futureJoanne Perritt,
Myerson