Dean Paul Paton doesn't have a crystal ball. What he does have is insight on the impact millennials are having on law firm culture and expertise on the manner in which structures for the delivery of legal services are changing.
In an article on legal innovation in the December 9, 2016 issue of The Lawyers Weekly, Paton provides comment on how millennials are impacting law firm culture - from the layout of office space, to how they work and expect to be compensated and recognized - and how this could affect the law firm of the future. It's no secret that millennials are less likely than their parents to embrace rigid corporate structures, and Paton notes that law firms are responding to millennial preferences to attract and retain top talent, but in conversation recently he's noted that firms "are struggling with this. What motivates millennials isn't necessarily what motivated my generation of law firm partners. Failing to recognize that threatens to blast the traditional law firm partnership model to bits if we're not careful."
Millennials aren't the only force affecting change at law firms. The power of technology has come late to law, but is radically transforming the way in which lawyers do business. The internet has helped to democratize access to information, and Paton says that this has the potential to affect law firms' billing methods and even structures. Paton was an invited speaker at the Law Society of England and Wales' International Marketplace conference in London in October 2016 on the panel "Robots vs. Lawyers", where his remarks focused on the way in which automation has moved beyond simple volume processing of data and filtering of information to predictive analysis, threatening the value proposition firms have traditionally offered their clients: their intellectual human capital.
The Lawyers Weekly article points to Deloitte Conduit Law - a hybrid law / accounting / consulting firm offering on-demand, in-house counsel services to clients - as an example of innovation and change. Australia and the UK are leading the way when it comes to these new alternative business structures (ABS), and Paton says that this level of experimentation is not yet happening in North America. A 2016 report of the prairie law societies (Alberta/Saskatchewan/Manitoba) suggests that greater regulatory flexibility may be on the way, but it's still under discussion. As Reporter for the American Bar Association's (ABA) Ethics 20/20 Commission between 2010-12, Paton was at the forefront of debates in the US over ABS, which the 2016 ABA Future of Legal Services Task Force rejected once again. What will the law firm of the future look like? Paton says that's the million-dollar question.