Tech-savvy Professionals Needed

The Legal Profession has witnessed a change much like the Automobile industry. The invention of the Automobile permitted only three color choices according to Henry Ford; black, black, or black. Today, Auto manufacturers compete among a myriad of choices available to consumers. Law practice has likewise changed, according to the recent 2009 ABA Summit held in Scottsdale, AZ. Competition for choice has arrived and Lawyers must become nimble navigators of change.

In the techno-rich world in which we live, speed trumps size. The "billable hour ponzi scheme" (ABA Summit, 2009) is toppling. To gain and maintain a big and fast competitive edge requires technology investment. Because the consumer controls the marketplace today, technology is needed to stay abreast of data. Simulation and interactivity are the norms, not the exceptions.

The main skills needed are retrieving information and making sense of data. These skills are taught by doing. According to findings reported at the ABA Summit, "the legal profession has done least well in creating a framework in which to store and retrieve data and make sense of it critically."

Young lawyers training today have grown up in a world where information is ephemeral. They do not care about information that will be outdated tomorrow. They live in a just-in-time world and want to know simply HOW TO FIND WHAT IS NEEDED WHEN IT IS NEEDED. They want to know HOW TO FIND IT WHEN THEY NEED IT. And even though they are viewed as "natives" to technology, we shouldn't assume they understand it.

For these reasons, professionals must possess a personal learning environment (PLE) that is strategically networked to an intellectual community of scholarship. Such environments become the resource for timely updates and support. Such environments are the leveraged edge upon the fulcrum of our Inter-networked world.

However, even the creation of PLEs is not the end-all solution to the problem. The difference between informing and educating is that informing is a tool that facilitates the reduction of uncertainty. But educating produces an increase in capability. The value-added increase of capability occurs when we blend practice with feedback which is tied to the outcome we want to achieve. Our use of technology should increase the value of our specialization as well as our skill set/s.

One example of a skill set deficit, according to the ABA, concerns how visual presentation tools are neither used enough nor employed effectively. "eDiscovery will become the most important stuff lawyers do," according to the ABA's assessment. The best way to achieve the needed skill set is via systematic, simulation-based CLE (the Med School model).

If we want to teach competence, we must combine knowledge of case-law with skill development (which includes technology use). What does a competent lawyer look like? Certainly they are skilled in the use of technology. Such  skill is the baseline, not the target. Clients demand tech-savvy representation and firms must supply that demand. (posted 1/19/10)