Law new is a catchall industry term referring to legal technology, “legal ops,” alternative legal services providers (ALSPs), and other companies, startups, and law firm subsidiaries that are changing the way traditional law firms and in-house legal departments operate. This is an important movement, and one that requires the legal function to evolve as well.
As a result of the speed, scale and breadth of change in our business environment, there are significant global challenges that cannot be mastered by a single person, company, function, organization, or stakeholder group. These challenges require a collective effort across enterprises, stakeholders, and nations. The legal industry must be a part of the effort to solve them, and in doing so, it can lead the way in creating law new.
The first step to achieving this is for the industry to make the paradigm shift from provider-centricity to customer-centricity. This is a change in mindset that will allow the industry to focus on customer impact that drives high net promoter scores, not on preserving legacy delivery models and outdated legal education, self-regulation, and dispute resolution mechanisms. This will also allow the industry to focus on making legal services accessible, affordable, efficient, practical, and solution-driven rather than on its historical focus on profit preservation and retaining top billers.
Ultimately, the goal of law new is to transform the legal industry into a customer-centric service model that provides value and produces the most meaningful change in the lives of legal consumers and society-at-large. This is a journey that will ultimately result in an integrated platform-based delivery structure from which agile, fluid, on-demand resources with verifiable, material expertise and experience can be sourced. The legal industry will be able to provide solutions based on data, the law, and a deep understanding of the end-users’ objectives.
For example, a recent law that passed in California will help to address pay disparity by requiring businesses to include salary ranges on job postings. This will allow workers to compare compensation based on position, gender, and race. While this is only a small piece of what the law can achieve, it is an important step in the right direction.
The process of how a law is made is different for each state. However, in general, a law can be made by introducing a bill in either the House of Representatives or Senate. The bill will then be assigned to a committee whose members will research and make changes before it is voted on. If it passes both chambers, the Governor will sign it into law or veto it. If a bill is vetoed, it will be returned to the chamber that passed it and explained why the Governor is rejecting it. From there, the process can be started all over again. This process can take years to complete, but it is an important part of how a law becomes a reality. The laws that are enacted are recorded in the Statutes at Large.