The legal industry has largely failed to deliver on its promise to make law new. This is a profoundly disappointing state of affairs, particularly when you consider the pace of business change and the size of the global challenges that are unavoidable.
The term “law new” has been used to describe a host of different things, including legal technology, legal operations, alternative service providers, and legal innovation. The common element of these initiatives is that they are focused on improving a specific process or legal issue in a particular way. However, in most cases, the improvement is based on a particular set of assumptions about what “good” legal processes or outcomes look like.
These assumptions are rooted in the legal industry’s legacy delivery model and an outdated understanding of what law actually is. This is not to disparage the value of technology, which can play a vital role in driving legal industry innovation. However, the best way to deliver law new is not through technology alone; it should be a component of a broader strategic plan that is driven by end-user needs and goals.
Legal buyers are demanding that their provider sources drive significant impact and net promoter score, not merely preserve legacy delivery models and outdated legal education. This is driving a paradigm shift from the legal function’s traditional focus on lawyer-centricity to customer-centricity and collaborative business solutions.
While the change is sweeping, it’s still early days for law new. The emergence of a true law new is a multifaceted endeavor that will require collaboration between legal practitioners and allied professional groups, collaboration among law firms and in-house legal departments, and collaboration with the large corporate Goliaths that have the brand, capital, know-how, tech platforms, agile, multidisciplinary workforces, and familiarity with the legal industry to shape this transformation.
A bill is a formal legislative proposal that is introduced in either the House of Representatives or the Senate. These bills are then assigned to committees, which research and debate them. If a bill is passed by both chambers and signed by the President, it becomes a public law.
Property law is the body of laws that govern ownership and possession of land and its fixtures, as well as movable personal property such as furniture and computers. It is broadly categorized into two types: real property, also known as land law or rem; and personal property, which includes everything that is not real property.