In recent years, new legal tech models and alternative work solutions have continued to emerge. The business of Law has constantly evolved and become more competitive, productive and effective. Although the legal industry is known for sticking to traditionalworking practices, there is a spectacular pace of change in global legal practice driven by technology. For global legal practice to thrive, lawyers must be abreast with technology in their legal service delivery and this ought to start from making necessary changes to legal education and training.
Most law firms are leveraging on technology to add value, reduce cost and improve the overall client experience, client portals, electronic billing and intranet-based collaborative platforms. A major reason for the shift from the traditional mode of legal practice is caused by the impact of technology on the legal profession. Technological advancement has unquestionably brought new levels/trends of convenience to the practice of law in Nigeria.
The outbreak of Covid 19 and pandemic in 2020 accelerated the transition process as a lot of Law firms increased their digital footprints and reassessed standard operating procedures to accommodate remote working and trim unnecessary processes amongst other changes.Lawyers and even the courts have adopted the use of mobile gadgets and devices as an avenue to work remotely and have virtual court sittings. Recently, a ‘lawtech’ company in Nigeria announced the deployment of an Artificial Intelligent (AI) virtual assistant called TIMI which can also be used to review contracts and draft contracts.
Paperless practice is now on the rise as the need to move around with boxes of documents and case files has greatly diminished as such documents can now be easily accessed on a mobile device. Lawyers have also come to embrace the power of social media and its potential for business growth, networking and sharing latest news and updates. Lawyers and legal teams can prepare themselves for the emerging advancement in legal business by learning relevant IT skills, being open to change and embracing it.
In light of the emerging fields of practices in the legal profession, there are certain practice areas that offer wide opportunities for lawyers and law firms. Some of these practice areas have been present for some time like Corporate and Commercial Law Practice which goes beyond drafting contracts and company registrations, spanning across all fields of corporate advisory services like corporate restructuring, corporate finance, intellectual property and other forms of commercial transactions.
Knowledge in corporate laws and practices is required to do well in these fields. Corporate finance requires good understanding of national and international finance laws and rules coupled with constant interfacing with regulatory bodies and financial institutions. Embedded in this field of practice are: banking law, contract law and securities law.
Similarly, Intellectual property law is another field of commercial law practice that offers opportunities for lawyers. With economic diversification comes growth in areas like entertainment, communication, energy and transportation.
The evolution of legal service has brought about the acceptance of legal retainership which allows a client to employ the legal services of a lawyer for a period of time with respect to a range of legal services that may be specified for the payment of retainer fee. Retainership as a form of payment for legal services is gaining better traction than the traditional payment per service that most older lawyers are used to.
Whether the profession is ready for it or not, technological disruption will continue to change the face of legal service delivery in Nigeria. Lawyers must be ready to face this change and learn how to remain relevant in the face of digitalization revolution and take advantage of technology to be able to do more with less, rather than shy away from it.
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