Design Thinking the Lawyer

https://rethinking.legal/designing-lawyers-down-from-the-ivory-tower-6c336c634fe

When I found this Medium piece, I immediately sent it to the five law friends that share my love for self depreciating law school memes.

Originally, my readings of design thinking positioned it as a concept far away from the sandstone walls of the legal profession. In my mind, law was already constructed - that is, nothing needed to be designed and there was an overarching feeling that things didn't need to be redesigned either. And what John Abler, a man of great talents (Bio "Futurist, lawyer, technologist, aviator, mariner, gearhead…curious as can be.") is completely correct in many aspects of how law students become lawyers.

"We shouldn’t wonder that lawyers isolate themselves so much that clients complain about it. They are taught an isolating regimen from the first days of law school."

Yes, during my time at one of the oldest law schools in Australia, I always felt this swim of drown mentality. Everyone would harp on about how long they've been awake last night to study or how the partner at their law firm called them at 3am in the morning to do some 'light research' for them. This masochistic and self-destructive belief was furthered the lack of note sharing and comradery to our fellow student. Even our libraries, from an urban planning point of view was constructed to keep us isolated in our own hellscapes of law readings and competing for top clerkships. Luckily, I do argue that remnants of the community and teamwork relied upon by our hairy forefathers was found well outside of the law lectures by those jarred by the hostility of a profession that is support to pursue justice and redress civil and criminal wrongs. It pushed many students away from that shiny future that we all thought was worth the six years of further education to forms of work that welcomed collaboration and where differing opinions created better iterations of a product.

Law school teaches you that being correct is superiority important than being helpful. And I think that is the foremost mistake between lawyers. In an effort not to generalise, there I've definitely made generalisations. The study of law and the reflection of it's future doesn't hesitate to send pangs of regret into my mind. Whilst I acknowledge my privilege to be able to understand and decipher an otherwise inaccessible pillar of civil society, it pushes me further into a rut that society will always have winners and losers. In between that, I feel like there needs to be greater layman information about how to navigate the legal systems twisted labyrinths.

I'm always really excited to hear new start ups in the legaltech space. I can definitely see the undermining of the legal profession’s ivory tower though with this century’s ‘empowered client.’ I’m still unsure if it is positive or negative. The legal scene is now populated with empowered clients wielding the internet and the myriad of accessible resources it provides. It means that acquiescence to a lawyer’s instructions is dated, the vision of the lawyer-client relationship changes towards one of greater transparency and a partnership model in which these clients are actively participating in the decision making.

Shattering the lawyer's ego goes a long way to re-imagining success to be one where the client is at every step of the way with one hand on the steering wheel as well. And that starts at university.