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What will the barrister of the future look like?
As we move into a post-pandemic market, barristers should be adapting as much new tech as possible in order to be more efficient and productive, according to this pair.
Lauren Croft
Laura Keily is a barrister and the founder of Immediation, and Stephen Foley is the founder and managing director of TaLaw; both are legal technology platforms. Speaking recently on the second episode of LawTech Talks, produced in partnership with Immediation, the pair reflected on how much the courts have changed over the last decade and what the tech-enabled barrister of the future will look like.
“We’re moving from having to push stuff around and folders everywhere, and really disorganised in some cases, to having everything streamlined; I’ve got everything at my fingertips, I can go anywhere I want, anywhere in the world actually, I can go. I can continue to be of service in terms of the profession that I’m using.
“The platforms now that are being used, certainly the eBrief Ready platform, somebody can be able to use that platform for as little as $30 a month. To get all that technology for that sort of price is extraordinary, compared to what it might have cost us 10 years ago to do these sorts of things. Having technology that’s accessible for everybody to use creates a more even platform that we’re operating from,” he said.
“We have very pro bono schemes for community services that are doing community work, for women in law, that are working specifically in pro bono areas. We make the program available to them for no cost because we believe that access to justice and really access to justice is access to technology. I mean, you can’t separate them really these days, and so I think that’s a really important part of this process we’re going through.”
Similarly, Ms Keily predicted a move to a more “disaggregated model” post-pandemic.
“I suspect that we’ll probably move, like I said, to more fluidity where people are not so physically connected together, but they’re connected more in this global community of practitioners that are working all over the place,” she said.
“I would like to think that the barrister of the future looks and sounds a little bit different from perhaps the makeup of the past. That there are more women, that there are more diverse cultures, more indigenous people, and that more younger practitioners coming through, and that the bar can really transition itself into superior advocacy and advice work, and not so much be stuck to the old guard as much perhaps as it was when I first started at the bar.”
In terms of some of the new technology that barristers should be taking up, Ms Keily added that in addition to traditional platforms and CRM systems, more digital communication methods would continue to be useful.
“The thing that we are specialising in is digital collaboration, which can take the form of everything from generic video such as your Zoom, your Teams, that are used in court, but it actually goes now all the way through to what we’re doing, which is specialised online dispute resolution, which incorporates communications between client-lawyer teams, your co-drafting features, your settlement agreements embedded in the platform, the ability to annotate evidence, all in the same space,” she said.
Documents being uploaded to a cloud-based system will also become more common in the future, added Mr Foley.
“This level of development’s really been about shifting away from having barristers, for example, getting their documents through multiple emails, Dropboxes, OneDrives, USB sticks, sometimes in a manner they get two or three of these methodologies, URLs pointing to, or zip files, and even hard copies. Like, taking that all away and just being able to create one simple place to have everything uploaded into.
“Barristers are busy being lawyers, going for trials and being able to run their matters. They don’t need to be worried about all these different types of technology. We need to simplify it. They don’t have big law firms behind them providing them all this tech support, so we need to provide something where it’s just a simple platform where all the documents can come, they can see all their matters in one place, they can do their research on the matters, they can annotate, they can share them, they can search them,” he said.
“I think support’s a really key component. You can have a good product, but we also provide really good support, and that’s all about allowing everybody to move into the new world.”
The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Laura Keily and Stephen Foley, click below:
Lauren Croft
Lauren is a journalist at Lawyers Weekly and graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism from Macleay College. Prior to joining Lawyers Weekly, she worked as a trade journalist for media and travel industry publications and Travel Weekly. Originally born in England, Lauren enjoys trying new bars and restaurants, attending music festivals and travelling. She is also a keen snowboarder and pre-pandemic, spent a season living in a French ski resort.
