Peer to Peer Magazine

42 PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF ILTA | SUMMER 2016 time since just aer the Norman Conquest. And the principles of that redesign are not the staid and sober rules of the bar, a cloister as bound by stare decisis in its work rules as in its legal precedents. No, the redesign now taking place in law is being done by the standards of today's marketplace, which has come to expect iPhones and Teslas to replace Ma Bell and flivvers. It's about time for radical redesign; it's long overdue. Most lower- and middle-class citizens and most small businesses in the United States and United Kingdom go unrepresented or underrepresented when they encounter legal problems. Legal fees are out of reach for all but the wealthiest, puing access to justice out of reach as well. And even the largest commercial clients have raised a hue and cry about the disconnect between the cost of legal services and Blockchain-based technologies are restructuring that most basic of legal instrumentalities — the contract — and offering up electronic contracts that are lawyerless, smart and self-enforcing. Alternate dispute resolution services are springing up to remedy the cost, delay and unfairness inherent in an overloaded court system. And all of this is just a beginning. Watson and his yet-to-be-thought-up companions are waiting in the wings. Whose Revolution? The big news of these last few years is not the mildly revised economics of law practice (although that's certainly what lawyers are talking about). It is that how we serve the legal needs of our citizens and companies is finally beginning to shi — finally, as in for the first Law practice is undergoing a dramatic redesign at this very moment. Services such as RocketLawyer and LegalZoom are redefining the infrastructure for the delivery of legal services. Virtual entities such as Axiom, Counsel on Call and VLP are reformulating what it means to be a firm. by John Alber JOHN ALBER John Alber is retired and currently living aboard the 50-foot trawler Barefoot Lady in southern and southeastern U.S. waters. He chronicles his adventures in the blog A Life Afloat. John also serves in a volunteer capacity as a futurist for the International Legal Technology Association. For the 16 years prior, he served as Bryan Cave's strategic innovation partner. The groups under his leadership developed innovative web-based, client-centric applications and client-facing knowledge management, project management, project estimation and business intelligence systems. Contact John at john@johnalber.com. REVOLUTIONIZING LAW WITH DESIGN THINKING

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