Legal Innovation & Why Law Students Need to Understand its Future in Law
This past year, COVID has forced the Canadian legal system to adapt and innovate to respond to the current climate and restrictions our society has had to become accustomed to. Why should we, as law students, care to learn about legal innovation? The simple answer is that we need innovation if we are to survive as a profession.
First and most importantly, legal innovations aid and support access to justice. There are many barriers with respect to access to justice. This can be because of geographics, where more rural and northern towns do not have access to lawyers and have to travel far distances to receive legal assistance. Additionally, there is the cost factor. Lawyers are expensive, and a significant portion of the population is becoming unable to afford legal services, which is why alternative dispute resolutions have increased in popularity.
Thus, as future lawyers, legal innovation is critical for us to expand our clientele reach, and to help us become more affordable to the general community since these new technologies can help create efficiencies to reduce the cost of legal services.
Some innovations go beyond technological development, but can be reconstructing the traditional legal avenues. There are alternative dispute resolution methods, such as mediation and arbitration. There are even unbundled legal services where clients pay a lawyer to do a specific task.
Second, if you have ever considered opening your own practice, incorporating legal innovations can help differentiate you from your competition by making you more efficient. Again, it can allow you to operate in more remote locations as well as expand your reach to clients living in those remote locations.
Third, we have already been exposed to the benefits of legal innovation as law students. The most prominent example being LexisNexis and Westlaw. We have case law, statutes, encyclopedias, etc., at our fingertips. We can find any case in seconds, instead of going to law libraries and searching through mountains of books to find the case law we need.
As I mentioned, we want legal innovation to thrive, but it is also important to tap into our generation’s knowledge and creativity, especially since technology has had a prominent role in this generation’s day-to-day life. In our profession, there does not seem like there is much room or encouragement for innovation in our field; however, if we are to progress and adapt as society becomes more technologically advanced, we need to capitalize on that and innovate in order to provide the best service to clients.
How to Participate in Legal Innovation as a Law Student:
Ryerson recently developed a Legal Innovation Zone, which is Canada’s first legal incubator. Lawyers, tech experts, industry leaders, law students, and other professionals come together in order to drive innovation.
In addition, Momentum Law has created the Student Legal Innovation Association across Ontario. The inspiration for the Association was to change the current legal landscape, and create a better system by supporting innovation and bringing it to the forefront.
You can also participate in legal innovation competitions that have recently started to take place in Canada, i.e. the Final Pitch Competition.
Website: https://studentinnovation.legal/
Working in the Legal Sector, but not as a Lawyer:
The development of new forums where legal issues can take place can influence a new type of lawyer or create a unique niche in the legal profession. The new generation of law students can become mediators or arbitrators; they could also offer unbundled legal services and provide limited services to self-represented parties. Additionally, future lawyers should consider participating in what the Canadian Bar Association calls “Low” Bono work, where you conduct legal services for a reduced fee.
Law students are the future leaders of our legal system, but it is vital that we also become innovators in order to thrive in today’s world.
