Let’s get digital

Richard Susskind filled the lecture theatre at the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) in Lincoln’s Inn for the annual Society for Computers and Law (SCL) lecture. A text of this appears, as yet, to be unavailable, though a podcast of the lecture is accessible through the SCL website. The lecture is worth listening to partly for the breadth of the author’s vision of the impact of new technology but also for the nuances in his current position on government-driven initiatives.

Much of Professor Susskind’s analysis follows that set out in his books, most recently in The Future of the Professions, co-written with his son, Daniel. In particular, he points to the potentially transformative effects of the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) in large corporate firms. All the major firms, he points out, now have alliances of one kind or another with AI providers. This will, in time disrupt the legal profession as we know it. Changes are consequently needed in