Abstract:

Advances in technology offer new capabilities for all the professions and the lawyers are not the exception. Nowadays, ICT is used not only to enhance efficiency, access, timeliness, transparency and accountability, helping the lawyers to provide adequate services. Now, we are in the midst of a new revolution driven by the power of digital technology. These developments have enormous implications for every aspect of law. Traditional law companies have built themselves on leverage and hierarchy depending on billable hours by more junior associates and staff. Now, they are facing a new economy that includes competition from machines and global outsourcing. Unless they fundamentally change their revenue and employment models, more efficient automation can destroy these law firms. Business models have to cope with the external changes and to be adapted to innovation. They exploit technology and globalization by matching consumers' needs with tied-up services and products. Factors such as global competition, legal process outsourcers, changing regulatory requirements, rapid mergers and dissolutions, and alternative fee arrangements have shifted the legal marketplace into one of seemingly constant evolution. The new models are reducing costs, breaking away from old patterns of fee arrangements, and increasing efficiency through unique structuring and use of technology. Disruption is the shaking up of existing markets, mainly because of innovations. This study ascertains the digital disruption in the law profession taking into account three entities: technology, lawyers' profession and business models. The fields of business models in legal services are analyzed and an innovative application of SWOT analysis is proposed. The perspectives of the study may trigger future work in the rapidly developing landscape of digital disruption in the lawyers' profession.

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