Q&A: Camila Lopez, Co-Founder, People Clerk

The way that legal services are delivered is fast changing due to advances in technology and business model innovation. This is resulting in a gradual shift towards affordable, standardised services and efficiencies in how law firms deliver services. We interviewed thought leaders on the changing legal industry, emerging technologies impacting the sector, factors holding law firms back and what the future lawyer looks like.

Here is our interview with the Co-Founder of People Clerk, Camila Lopez.

WHERE DO YOU SEE THE LEGAL INDUSTRY IN 5 YEARS?

We will continue to see changes in legal regulations such as legal innovation sandboxes like the ones we are seeing today in Utah, Arizona, and California.

These regulatory changes will make it easier for companies to offer services directly to consumers. As a result, there will be increased investment in legal tech.‍

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WHICH EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES ARE YOU MOST EXCITED BY AND WHY?

Although I think machine learning and AI are still in their infancy for the legal market, I’m very excited about the potential impact. Artificial intelligence can help consumers understand their legal problems, create legal documents, and offer high-level customer service at a fraction of the cost. New technologies such as GPT-3 are an indication of what is quickly coming.

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WHAT IS CURRENTLY HOLDING LAW FIRMS BACK FROM INNOVATING?

Regulation: The current regulations make it difficult for law firms to get outside investment. Without outside investment, it is very hard to hire and incentivize engineering talent. Without quality engineering talent it is costly to innovate.

Themselves: Lawyers are not innovating because they currently feel they don’t have to innovate as it takes more time and money for a lawyer to adapt to new technologies. Lawyers are not looking forward to the future but are stuck with the status quo. Innovation is moving fast and once lawyers realize they should have been innovating, it will be too late.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE LAWYER LOOK LIKE?

The future lawyer will be extremely customer-centric, after all, the law is a service industry. Lawyers will achieve being customer-centric by implementing technology in their law practice. First, with technology, lawyers will be able to reduce their costs. The lawyers not implementing technology will charge more, as a result, customers will go to the lawyers that are reducing costs. 

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Second, lawyers will be able to communicate better with their clients as they will be able to scale their communications with technology. Clients want more visibility on what is going on with their legal problem and technology will help with this.

To find out what 14 other thought leaders had to say on the future of legal services, download the full 21st Century Lawyer report at www.newlawacademy.com/report