The biggest experiment that is going on now in the filed of law is the gradual move away from selling the old legal services. The clients actually started demanding alternatives in assisting their commercial and dispute issues. As the lawyers started realizing that they cannot anymore assist their clients by relying on the old patterns of legal services a new playing field started emerging. It is still in a nascent form, but it seems there is a market out there for a non legal assistance which is increasingly important to the competitors in the frictionless economy. This form of assistance relies mainly on empowering the clients by educating them to understand and use the rules, ethics and their own responsibility combined in the commercial field and educate themselves so to avoid disputes from arising by listening properly and avoiding conflicts in the first place, followed by negotiation and mediation in the dispute resolution arena if teh conflicts do arise. Well, criminal law is not going to go away anyway…

http://www.linkedin.com/answers/law-legal/tax-law/LAWTXL/443420-13257335?trk=NUSANSWqtitle&goback=.hom

On 03/23/09 4:29 PM, Mark wrote:

Fascinating.

Who are the leaders in this new area?

Mark,

a lot of such initatives started in the intellectual property circles under the pressure from the clients such as the British American Tobacco and elsewhere with GE under the initiatives of Michael Leathes and Claude Najar. Northrop Grumman under Wolf von Kumberg is also dedicated to demanding this type of services. International Trademark Association’s (INTA) ADR Committee is a place where a lot is going on in this direction as is the Union Internationale des Avocats’ (UIA) World Forum of Mediation Centers with Thierry Garby. Some strains of Baker McKenzie London are strong proponents often close to this type of thinking. Have you heard about the book The End of Lawyers by Richard Susskind?

Thanks for your interest. Let me know should you need further information.

Best regards

Mladen