As legal consumers and business partners look for better, faster, cheaper and more flexible ways to do their work, law firms are starting to adopt new practices. One of those is called “law new” and it is all about finding a way to provide legal services in innovative ways. For example, they can do things like working with underserved communities or coming up with strategies that help clients achieve their goals without hiring a lot of lawyers.
It is important to note that this type of collaboration does not necessarily mean partnering with competitors. For instance, companies like GM, Ford and Honda routinely collaborate on a number of different development projects. These types of collaborative initiatives are emblematic of the fluidity and collaboration that has become a hallmark of modern business. Similarly, many legal firms are now collaborating with outside companies in order to come up with innovative strategies for their clients. These strategies are not just intended to improve client service but to help them meet their business goals as well.
A key to this innovation is that it will be driven by customer impact and not just cost savings. This will be a major shift from the current paradigm where the legal industry is focused on internal efficiency and profit preservation. In this new paradigm, the legal industry will more closely resemble its corporate customers and society at large in terms of diversity (cognitively, demographically, culturally and experientially). The legal industry will embrace a diverse, tech and data-proficient, agile, empathetic and team-oriented workforce.
The legal industry will embrace the concept of a client-centric legal function that works with other enterprise business units to create and deliver accessible, affordable, on-demand and scalable legal products and services that meet business and social needs at the speed of business and society. This change will be facilitated by the use of new legal delivery models and tools that are not based on preserving outdated business processes, legal education, and self-regulation but rather on creating a value proposition that is anchored in customer impact and a superior end-user experience.
This bill would require City agencies to disclose certain information regarding private identifying data breaches involving persons’ personal information that was accessed, disclosed or used by an unauthorized person. The legislation also would align City laws on this issue with requirements under New York State law.