Story of Perennial Followers

• Author: Adam Newhouse
• Pages: 29-37

29

CHAPTER 4

Story of Perennial Followers

I want a lawyer who knows his or her way around. No matter what

fix I’m in, my lawyer will take care of me. My lawyer will warn me

beforehand so I never fall into a legal pothole or hit a legal snag. I want

a lawyer who tells me what I need to know before I learn it from others.

Iwant a lawyer who is a step ahead of me so I can respect him or her.

Idon’t want my lawyer to be a follower. I want him or her to walk with

me, guide me, and represent me in this fast-changing world. I want my

lawyer to be a leader.

Back to Earth. . . . In the days before the Great Recession, few of us

measured up to such a paragon of a lawyer. We thought that our con-

servative bent was enough to guarantee us clients’ respect. But as inno-

vation accelerates, our conservative disposition looks comical. Clients

once waited for us, but in the digital age, waiting is deadly.

Lawyer-Come-Lately Tragedy

The reality is that most lawyers are relatively late adopters of new

technology. Accordingly, we can expect that most law firms will

not rush to accept new technologies and may even, in reactionary

spirit, resist their introduction. . . . It is in most lawyers’ natures

and interests to claim that things tomorrow will be much the same as

today but perhaps somewhat streamlined through technology. Lawyers

tend to believe, rather conservatively, that the past will offer solid

insight into the future. . . . There is the danger here, as others have put

it, of walking backwards into the future.104

—Richard Susskind

I hear of law firms organizing workshops on “how to survive” in the

increasingly competitive marketplace over the next decade. The very

framing of the issue in terms of survival betrays a follower’s mentality.

104. Richard Susskind, The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services 22

(Oxford Univ. Press 2008) (“The End of Lawyers?”).

new55202_04_ch04_029-038.indd 29 7/8/16 12:53 PM