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23 June 2023 / Roger Smith
Issue: 8030 / Categories: Opinion , Technology , Profession , Legal aid focus
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Tomorrow’s lawyers: don’t despair

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No matter the advances of legal tech in widening access to justice, there will always be a place for human advisers, as Roger Smith explains

Richard Susskind (pictured) ploughs a straight furrow. He has travelled through The Future of Law (1996), Transforming the Law (2000) and The End of Lawyers (2010). With a study on The Future of the Professions (2015) with his son, Daniel, his writing has even become a bit of a family business. In March, he published the third edition of Tomorrow’s Lawyers: An Introduction to your Future (Oxford University Press, 2023). It all amounts to a solid and commendable body of work. He has battled his way to widespread acceptance of views once seen as extreme. But, perhaps at least in the access to justice field, Professor Susskind’s thoughts might need a little refinement.

Professor Susskind is engaging, polemical and interesting. He is also—on the big issues—right. His main thesis has remained constant. The ‘legal market is in a remarkable state of flux’ (the words

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Harneys—Maggie Kwok & George Weston

Harneys—Maggie Kwok & George Weston

Harneys senior leadership appointments

Freeths—Keith Browne & Jim Jordan

Freeths—Keith Browne & Jim Jordan

Freeths strengthens London Construction and Engineering practice with two strategic senior hires

Anthony Collins—Laura Moss

Anthony Collins—Laura Moss

Anthony Collins announces strategic hire to deepen skills base in the social business sector

NEWS
More than 100 teams from the legal and financial services sectors competed in five sports at the 51st Law Society RFC Festival of Sport earlier this month
Part-time status need only be an effective cause of less favourable treatment, rather than the sole cause, the Supreme Court has held in Augustine v Data Cars
Britain’s new acknowledgement that Israel’s occupation is unlawful, and accompanying settlement-goods ban and sanctions, is significant but overdue, argue Danny Friedman KC and Victor Kattan in NLJ this week
New planning fee rises, wider trade union access rights and a service-by-email trap feature in Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way
Existing defamation law can respond to AI ‘hallucinations’, but allocating responsibility will prove harder where outputs reach users without human intervention
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