Focus on Ethics & Civility

• Jurisdiction: Utah,United States
• Citation: Vol. 33 No. 2 Pg. 47
• Pages: 47
• Publication year: 2020

Focus on Ethics & CivilityVol. 33 No. 2 Pg. 47Utah Bar JournalApril, 2020

March, 2020

Legal Industry Disruption May Be Here: A Primer on Regulatory Reform in Utah

By Keith A. Call

Over the past several years, I have watched with wonder and amazement at how the technology revolution has reformed various industries. Printed newspapers have almost disappeared. Ride sharing services, motorized scooters, and shared vehicles are changing the way we move. Brick and mortar retail stores can scarcely survive without taking full advantage of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.

I have often wondered how and when technology will disrupt the legal industry in a major way. Oh, the legal industry has been impacted by technology, for sure. Legal research services (some of them free) have changed the way we research. Artificial intelligence has changed evidence review and handling. Words and acronyms like “e-filing” and “ESI” are part of our everyday vernacular. But we have not yet experienced wholesale industry disruption. Forbes Magazine described the impacts of technology on the legal industry as “drip, not disruption.” Mark A. Cohen, Legal Change: Why Drip, Not Disruption?, FORBES (Apr. 26, 2018), available at https://www.forbes.com/sites/ markcohen1/2018/04/26/legal-change-why-drip-not-disruption/#40d985911fbf.

That might be about to change. In late 2018, the Utah Supreme Court formed a work group to study ways to foster innovation and increase access to and affordability of legal services. The work group issued a report and recommendations in August 2019. See Narrowing the Access-to-Justice Gap by Reimagining Regulation: Report and Recommendations from the Utah Work Group on Regulatory Reform (Aug. 2019), available at...