When Millennials Rule The World Of Law
Tech is going to change the way firms bill, train, and manage all aspects of the practice. That's not a prediction, it's an inevitability.
Ed. note: This is the third post in a series sponsored by Hotshot, a company bringing modern online learning to the legal industry.
Most summer associates have to sit around listening while their wise elders tell them how the world works. Of course, eventually, all those advice givers will be dead, and the summer associates will be running the show. Maybe young lawyers should be listening to their own advice.
We asked our readers how the law firm world will be different when Millennials run the law firm. Then we put that into a word cloud.
Less. Billable. Work. That might be what the Millennials see. What I see is “Total. Wishful. Thinking.”
Seriously though, what I notice is that most of the words that pop relate to “lifestyle” concerns as opposed to business concerns. But that’s not how it’s going to work, right? The “lifestyle” is the way it is because of the way the business works. If you are going to be paid by the hour, there are only 24 “units” in a day to make money with, and the pressure is going to be towards making use of all of them. The word that you’re looking for (but won’t find) in that word cloud is “Fees” or “Alternative.”
The comments to our survey were pretty funny. The credited — and somewhat typical — responses were that nothing will be all that different:
New boss same as old boss, the mask eats the face.
They won’t be much different, because the Millennials who will stick it out will not be the typical Millennials.
Nothing will change. Spend enough time in it and the system co-ops everyone. Resistance is futile.
It’s certainly possible that the kids will become what they beheld.
But the kids will be working in a completely different technological world than what exists today. Some people noted those technological possibilities:
Working remotely, reducing real estate and overhead, increasing perks and incidentals to themselves. See Silicon Valley, 2015
No more bulls**t Facetime.
I think there is one comment that has to be predictive of the future:
The importance of keeping up with technological updates will be recognized.
Firms are notoriously late adopters of technology. I can’t see a version of the future where Millennials are in charge and are yet similarly reluctant to phase out Internet Explorer.
We all know that tech is already changing the way firms service clients. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Tech is going to change the way firms bill, train, and manage all aspects of the practice.
That’s not a prediction, it’s an inevitability.
To learn more about Hotshot and register for our free Summer Pilot Program, visit www.hotshotlegal.com.
