Algorithms or Advocacy: Does the Legal Profession Have a Future in a Digital World?

Abstract

Much of the focus on the impact of new technology on employment has been on work which is regarded as repetitive and requiring minimal skills. For the most part it seems that professional occupations have been assumed to be relatively immune to the effects of 'digital disruption'. However, there are now suggestions that this is altering as new software programs have been developed that can undertake at least some of the functions of various professions. Included in such developments is the legal profession which may not exist as we know it today as these new technologies become embedded in the legal workplace. Instead of supporting, facilitating or transforming the role of the lawyer, we may ask the question is such technology destroying the role? This paper seeks to begin a discussion of what the legal profession will look like in the future (if it exists at all) in the light of new information technologies and how this might affect the groups that depend on legal services to assert their claims. It will also consider how legal education might be affected by digital disruption, and finally what opportunities such unravelling of the legal profession might present.