Peer to Peer Magazine

PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGA ZINE OF ILTA 30 SMART MOVES About the Author Joe Andrew is the Global Chair of Dentons. An accomplished and highly regarded corporate lawyer, Joe may be best known for his role as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in the U.S. from 1999-2001. As Global Chair of Dentons, Joe works closely with the Global Chief Executive and the firm's leadership team on Dentons' business strategy. He represents Dentons with clients around the world, key strategic partners, business and government leaders and other external groups. Contact him at joe.andrew@dentons.com. We expected flying cars and we got the Internet. We hoped for the Jetsons, but are now worried about living in The Matrix. In the first 14 years of this century, technology has affected what we do with our brains more than what we do with our hands. While the last two centuries saw a march toward greater efficiencies through industrialization and mass production, the 21st century has brought dramatic ways to assist us in analysis, data search and communication — all the acts of the intelligent mind. Perhaps that's why what is arguably the most complex of the services where ideas and analysis are sold—the practice of law—is now faced with so many opportunities to improve service. However, this also threatens the way law has been practiced for decades. Technology has pushed the practice of law to an inflection point — one of those rare times when the way things have been done for decades seems suddenly uncertain, unnecessary and maybe unprofitable. In 2011, an article in the The New York Times struck fear into the hearts of many lawyers — and hope into the hearts of their clients. Below the headline, "Armies of Expensive Lawyers, Replaced by Cheaper Software," the report recounted how, in 1978, an antitrust case required a discovery effort over several months that involved six million documents, hundreds of lawyers and paralegals, all at a cost of $2.2 million. In a 2011 case, a legal services firm using proprietary software analyzed 1.5 million documents in a single month at a cost of $100,000 — less than one-sixth the cost per document of the 1978 case, delivered in a fraction of the time. More important, the software-enabled document search was more accurate. Upon further examination, many partners might have breathed a sigh of relief, believing that while technology might replace humans in some of the more mundane aspects of the practice of law, it would never be a substitute for the strategic, independent judgment lawyers offer to clients. During the last 30 years, everyone who makes a living selling ideas and knowledge has encountered an inflection point when technology radically transformed his or her profession: accountants, business consultants, architects, engineers, advertising consultants and physicians. There The Perfect Partner How Technology Will Radically Change Your Business Model Technology changes everything. However, predicting how it will change something, the speed of the change, and in what order the changes will come is fraught with danger.

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