Years ago, it was great sport in the news media to get members of the “Flat Earth Society” to comment on the blue orb that appeared in the various photos and television broadcasts that the Apollo astronauts sent back from the moon. The “Flat Earth Society,” of course, was regarded as foolish and willfully ignorant.

Today, best-selling authors and business people say that the world is indeed flat, by which they mean that people everywhere have the same aspirations and capabilities, and can achieve them anywhere thanks to digital and electronic technology that “flattens” the playing field. If you accept this as true, ask yourself this question: Are you, as a lawyer, still living on a flat earth—one that ignores the two great waves of globalization and computerization?

Resist Isolationist Tendencies

Many sole practitioners and small firms believe that the world outside the U.S. has little impact on them. Managing partners at a number of modestly sized Canadian law firms say that their firms regularly interact with the European Union, international tribunals and foreign trade regulations; they are surprised at how little most U.S. lawyers work with and understand these issues. They are equally surprised to learn that U.S. lawyers don’t realize the implications of practicing law in foreign jurisdictions—for example, that electronically sharing information about Canadian clients with other members of a firm could violate Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.

In their defense, American law firms are not completely oblivious to today’s new flat world. Many are connecting via the Internet to the growing pool of highly educated talent in countries where English is spoken; India is the prime example. Though offshore legal service providers can significantly reduce the cost of transcription, data entry, legal research, document review and patent searches, the number of firms that avail themselves of these services is still the exception rather than the rule. Yet lawyers who resist the way that global technology flattens cost do so at their peril because it ignores what their clients want.

Clients Live At Internet Speed—And Lawyers Need To

The ubiquitous use of PDAs and word processing software shows that most lawyers are not necessarily unwilling to adapt to the new digital era, but many fail to realize its competitive implications. Take the proliferation of “Do-it-yourself” web sites purporting to offer advice, research and forms in such areas as family law, probate, real estate closings, and patent filings. Clients and potential clients live their lives at Internet speed, and increasingly turn to these sites because they have little patience for the pace (and cost) of traditional lawyering.

Consider this example. Each year the American Bar Association’s Legal Technology Resource Center releases a Legal Technology Survey to assess how lawyers in private practice use technology in law offices. A recent survey reported in Law Technology News asserted that fewer than 15% of lawyers use trial technology. Earlier surveys have reported similarly low use rates for case management and document assembly software.

Through my own surveys of law firms’ technology practices, I have found that many small firms and sole practitioners go as long as six years between computer and software upgrades. They cite cost, time to learn and implement the new technologies, and lack of certainty that new technology will increase efficiency and work quality. Such lawyers may be committing malpractice per se. One of the Rules of Professional Conduct requires that a lawyer be competent to handle a given matter, measured as the standard of care in the local community. When you face lawyers who are significantly more sophisticated in the use of technology that is the standard of care against which you are measured. If you don’t use technology effectively for trial support or case management, you may be perceived as willfully less competent than your competitors. And that’s malpractice.

Technology Speeds Payment

Aversion to innovation can hurt a lawyer even on the most fundamental level—getting paid. Many lawyers still devote the last day of the month to sending out paper invoices on engraved firm letterhead when they could email a PDF file of an invoice to the client as soon as the matter is completed. Even more lawyers still decline to accept credit card payments although clients today live on plastic and would find credit card payment a convenience that also (when provided for in the engagement agreement) allows a lawyer to be paid faster and with more certainty.

Change is hard for lawyers. Precedent (stare decisis, in the language of 2,000 years ago) still drives our conduct. Some lawyers refuse to recognize that the world is flat and continue to cling to the ways and practices of the past. These lawyers soon won’t have to worry about keeping up—because their practices will disappear as clients go elsewhere for service in today’s new, flat world.

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