Modern legal service - a note

 

Alisha Andert recently published an article in the newsletter of the Bucerius Center of the Legal Practice on the topic of WHY MODERN LEGAL SERVICE IS NOT A QUESTION OF THE INDIVIDUAL CASE that is well worth reading. In it, she calls for a holistic approach to legal advice, arguing that the traditional view of individual cases falls short in the digital era. We agree with the result, but only to a limited extent with the underlying assumption.

The author assumes that individual case thinking and legal detail determine everyday legal life and that standardization is therefore rather alien to the legal profession. Americans defend this approach as "bespoke lawyering". In many cases, however, the reality is not quite like that: "I haven't done a new contract in ages," confessed one lawyer during a recent interview. "The cases are so similar to each other that there are matching templates in the office for practically everything."

Now, of course, one can object that this is perhaps an isolated case, and moreover, everything is different in a large law firm anyway. Maybe, maybe only the dimensions change.

The point is this: If the example of the quoter is correct, then it is in fact the law firm staff who draw up the contract on demand, and from an economic point of view this process is quite efficient. Then it would also be understandable that many lawyers vehemently resist digitization and standardization - because in truth they have already standardized and therefore supposedly have little to gain.

But, once again emphasized, this should in no way call into question the author's conclusion based on her practically chosen example.