Peer to Peer Magazine

56 PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF ILTA | FALL 2017 by John Alber In 1779, Ned Ludd allegedly smashed a stocking frame (a mechanical kniing machine) in a fit of rage. Whether Ned was real or not, he gave his surname to a movement—the Luddites—whose anti-automation influence persists to this day and whose name has become synonymous with those who actively or passively resist technological progress. Which brings us to lawyers. They have a reputation among technologists (perhaps even among themselves) as status-quo-loving technophobes. Lawyers are always the last to adopt emerging technologies, so it's said, and they may even be wrench- throwing techno-anarchists. In a word: Luddites. But is that truism really true? Are lawyers really deserving of this laggardly reputation, or have they been wrongly accused? Focusing on the Problem Maybe the workplace isn't the venue to answer this question. What happens if we follow lawyers home and observe their interactions with technology there? Given their Luddite reputations, you would expect to find VCRs with flashing time displays, but that's not what we find. Lawyers are prey much an average cross-section of technology users. Sure, some operate at quill and inkwell levels — but many are adept app-using smartphone experts. Others easily manage difficult, multilayered technologies in an array of avocations ranging from aviation to fantasy sports. And a fair number of lawyers can actually program. So, I say, lawyers are not Luddites. In calling them that, we in legal technology excuse ourselves from addressing an actual problem with our law practices' technology game. The problem? Expertise. Or, more accurately, the fact that lawyers' training, both in law school and in practice, gives them a sense of their own expertise that insulates them from clients in ways that foreclose innovation. The good news is that this is fixable, as some firms are already discovering. Where's the Helpfulness? Law school and in-practice training emphasize the need for lawyers to be correct above all else. The Socratic method as used in law school exposes those who are wrong to public humiliation. In legal practice, Luddites or Empaths Luddites or Empaths FROM THE FUTURIST "How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb?" the lame legal technology joke goes. "None," comes the answer. "Lawyers don't change anything. They're Luddites."

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