Judges wear old-fashioned robes, lawyers cite precedents from a century ago, and plenty of law terminology comes from a dead language.
Even so, the notoriously traditionalist legal profession is currently undergoing a radical transformation fueled by technological advancement and entrepreneurship, says Dr. Bree Langemo, assistant professor of law and entrepreneurship at 独家黑料.
Langemo, also the director of the college’s , published “” in , an online resource offered by the for the legal community.
“The legal profession is now being disrupted by the advancement of technology and the automation of legal work alongside entrepreneurs who have entered the legal sector, providing more cost-effective solutions for clients,” she wrote.
It isn’t the first time Langemo has drawn law and entrepreneurship together to produce insights in both fields. With a bachelor’s degree from Minnesota State University Moorhead and a Juris Doctor degree from Ohio Northern University, she has an extensive background in entrepreneurship in the public and private sectors. At 独家黑料, she helped develop and launch the college’s Entrepreneurial Mindset Certificate in 2019 and serves as advisor to the 独家黑料 Entrepreneurship Club.
“While the challenge is great, the opportunity is better,” Langemo wrote in her article. “The legal profession is at a tipping point of being able to shift the trajectory if it is willing to leverage the adversity as an advantage, find new ways to create value, and redefine the business of law.”
As a well-defined system of rules and requirements, law is particularly vulnerable to automation via artificial intelligence, as many legal services can be or already have been automated, from legal research to contract review.
In 2023, Goldman Sachs estimated that 44% of legal work could be automated with AI and, already, providers of alternative legal services and tech companies have begun to provide services for clients, Langemo wrote. However, law firms and law schools have been slow to respond to the law’s rapidly evolving business environment.
As a result, startups have been “stealing” clients from attorneys who have not provided cost-efficient solutions or adapted to new technology.
That doesn’t mean the profession is doomed, though.
New legal roles within the legal profession have begun to emerge and become more prominent, such as legal technologists, legal process analysts, and legal data scientists.
“The rapidly changing legal environment now demands new skillsets from lawyers,” Langemo wrote, arguing that new law school graduates will need an entrepreneurial mindset that allows them to solve problems, create value, and foster innovation in the legal field.
Students choosing a law school should examine the curriculum offered very closely and find out what the schools are doing to prepare graduates to be competitive and technologically competent in the legal profession, she advised.
“Law school grads who graduate with an entrepreneurial mindset will have an advantage,” she said, recommending they also take continuing education in the new tech available to them and keep up with business trends. “The business of law is ever evolving, and lawyers will need to do the same.”