Law new means delivering legal services in new ways, using process and embracing technology. It’s also a new way of thinking about the business of law, and an area that deserves the attention of any legal firm wanting to thrive in the future.
The first thing that legal consumers, businesses and society need from the industry is better service. That is a paradigm shift that will require collaboration across multiple provider sources (law firms and in-house legal departments). The second is a new delivery model that is customer-centric, with a focus on high net promoter scores, and a desire to achieve more impact in more places. Both will require a new mindset that will not be imposed on the industry, but rather, will be the outcome of human adaptation to a changing world.
A well-executed plan that makes use of new law techniques will offer a unique and valuable service that some clients need, while not negatively affecting the primary areas of practice that a firm focuses on. This is a great opportunity for law firms to generate revenue and client satisfaction, and it’s a concept that all should explore with their own internal team.
New laws are created in the legislative branch of the federal government through bills that are introduced by senators and representatives. They are then reviewed, debated, changed and voted on in both houses of Congress. Once a bill has been passed by both houses, it is sent to the President for signature. Once signed into law, a bill is known as a statute.
State agencies and courts have established an enormous body of rules and regulations – delegated legislation – that are often referred to as law. This includes statutes and ordinances that have been enacted by the legislature, as well as decisions, opinions, and rulings of courts and administrative tribunals. These are compiled in the New York Codes, Rules and Regulations.
A number of new laws have been adopted by NYC this year. You can find them all on the NYC Laws and Rules website.
This bill amends City law to require private identifying information of persons who are victims of a security breach to be disclosed to the New York City Chief Privacy Officer and the NYPD, based on a determination that such disclosure is reasonably likely to protect those individuals’ interests.
The most significant new law development in the last fifteen years has been changes to legal delivery through legal operations, which have brought established business processes, technology and multidisciplinary expertise (“non-lawyers”) to the industry. While this is good delivery hygiene, it does not produce real paradigm change or customer impact. The real catalysts are going to come from the industry’s large-scale legal buyer activism, and from corporate Goliaths that have the brand, capital, know-how, customer centricity, data mastery, tech platforms, agile multidisciplinary workforces and footprint in/familiarity with the legal industry to reverse-engineer and deliver better delivery models. This is where the “new” in law new is coming from.