Suzanne Darais is the Librarian and Head of IT Services
at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney Law Library.
She is responsible for library Web page content and
the selection and evaluation of and training on legal
databases, software and equipment. In addition,
Suzanne teaches basic and advanced legal research
courses. She can be contacted at daraiss@law.utah.edu.
Raquel Gabriel, Assistant Director for Reference &
Research Services and Law Library Professor at CUNY
School of Law, teaches legal research. For 2012 - 2013,
she is the Chair of the Placement Committee for the
American Association of Law Libraries (AALL). Raquel
can be contacted at raquel.gabriel@law.cuny.edu.
Angus Nesbit, Law Reference Librarian at the University
of Oregon's John E. Jaqua Law Library, teaches legal
research and provides research assistance for law
faculty. In addition, he supervises reference librarians
and provides general administrative support for the
library's public services. Angus can be contacted at
anesbit@law.uoregon.edu.
At the 2012 annual meeting of the American Association
of Law Libraries (AALL) in Boston, internationally known
law firm consultant and futurist Richard Susskind
previewed his new book, "Tomorrow's Lawyers," laying
out what he believed were the most important drivers of
change in the legal profession. Chief among these was the
"more-for-less" mentality, which demands more efficient
delivery of services and collaborative sharing with clients.
Susskind then expanded on ways in which technology was
— and would be — harnessed to achieve more for less,
and ultimately, how to survive in our brave new economy.
Richard touched provocatively on how tomorrow's law jobs — with such titles as legal
knowledge engineers, technologists and process analysts — would engage in activities
such as workflow management, project management and automatic document assembly
to increase both back-office efficiencies and client-sharing of services. However, it was
perhaps only after he suggested the suitability of many librarians for much of this work
that attendees' interest reached its peak.
So what is it, exactly, that librarians bring to this dance into the future?
Peer to Peer
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