Lawyers and their Ethical values Research Papers (original) (raw)

Co-Curators' Foreward: Technological advancements, globalization, and the recent financial crisis have fueled unprecedented change in the legal industry. Against the backdrop of new business models, altered client expectations, and the... more

Co-Curators' Foreward:

Technological advancements, globalization, and the recent financial crisis have fueled unprecedented change in the legal industry. Against the backdrop of new business models, altered client expectations, and the fluidity of legal talent, the legal service delivery ecosystem of today and tomorrow is, in some ways, like that of a jungle i.e., difficult to navigate yet vibrant and flourishing. For that reason, we (the co-curators) designed this book to provide an international, multi-cultural map of ‘the legal jungle’. By putting together the voices of legal thought-leaders from around the world, this book is intended to display the changes unfolding across the legal marketplace today, varied outlooks on the future of the legal profession, as well as potential methods which law/legal professionals might employ for future success in a changed legal environment. To that end, the book is divided into three parts.

Part 1, Why Do Lawyers Need New Suits?, contains chapters that focus on the changing legal marketplace and its challenges; it provides various authors’ perspectives as to why lawyers need to don New Suits. For example, in chapter 1, Professors David B Wilkins and Maria José Esteban Ferrer demonstrate that what we call “alternative” legal services today is a misnomer and will be the norm in the legal market tomorrow. To meet clients’ changing expectations, lawyers need New Suits that are customizable and agile and which integrate law into broader business solutions. In chapter 2, Professor Mari Sako makes a parallel point about general counsels. In describing their evolving roles around the globe, Sako explains why general counsels will need to wear New Suits in an even more transient, international, and interwoven marketplace. Professor Michele DeStefano, Professor John Flood, and Karl Koller, in each of their respective chapters (chapters 3, 4, and 6), demonstrate why the wearers of these New Suits will need to hone new mindsets, skillsets, and behaviours to thrive.

In Part 2, What New Suits Might Lawyers Need for the Future?, the focus turns to predictions; herein, the authors attempt to foresee the impact, risks, and opportunities that technological advancements might have on the legal marketplace overall and, more specifically, on the jobs, roles, and careers of lawyers and law/legal professionals. For example, in chapter 12, Guenther Dobrauz-Saldapenna and Corsin Derungs share their predictions of how the law marketplace will need to adapt and evolve to survive. In chapters 15, 16, 21, and 22, the authors focus more specifically on the technology they believe will help create the New Suits lawyers will wear in the future: e.g., blockchain, automated legal documents, and artificial intelligence. In other chapters, authors including David Bundi, Juan Crosby, Mike Rowden, Craig McKeown, and Sebastian Ahrens question and sketch the future needs and roles of legal teams and legal functions and what New Suits will be required as a result.

In Part 3, How Will Lawyers Fit into the New Suits of the Future?, the book turns to chapters that suggest methods and models professionals might leverage to not only meet but to exceed the needs and expectations of the critical stakeholders in the future legal marketplace (e.g., business clients, general counsels, and the public at large). In other words, this part is focused on how lawyers will fit into (or fill in) the New Suits identified by the other parts of the book. This part begins with a chapter by Maurus Schreyvogel (chapter 23). He utilizes the Novartis Journey to describe a model that can be employed by lawyer leaders to drive operational excellence in legal service delivery. Salvatore Icangelo outlines the law firm of the future (chapter 3 2), Professor Michele DeStefano, provides a methodology to teach leadership, collaboration, and innovation to law/legal professionals (chapter 31) while Maria Leistner, concludes our book fittingly by outlining how the new generations will wear New Suits to make more meaningful contributions to the world of law (chapter 32).

To remain authentic to the voices, cultures, views, and scholarly preferences of the authors, we did not edit these articles as traditional editors might; nor did we weave them together so that they read as one contiguous thread. Instead, each author’s chapter can be read on its own and represents his/her own research, citation style, and viewpoint. We, the co-curators, analogize the compiling of this book to a quilting bee, a social gathering of legal thought leaders from around the world who have come together to tell stories about our time now (the dynamic state of the current legal marketplace) and to envision a viable future for the legal profession: a future in which we deliver not only more efficient but more effective and comprehensive services and solutions that help our clients and, at the same time, increase access to justice for all. This book, like a quilt, is designed to commemorate where we have been, where we are headed, and the why and how of both. This is because the future, unlike a jungle, is not formidable. The future is filled with fascinating and unfolding opportunities for the law/legal professionals who rise as leaders to hone and own their New Suits.