The Future of Law: Facing the Challenges of Information Technology

This edition makes Susskind's highly-acclaimed and best-selling book available in paperback, and includes a new and substantial preface by the author. His book demonstrates why the future of the law is digital. It shows why and how IT is radically altering and will alter further the practice of law and the administration of justice. Beyond automating and streamlining traditional ways of providing legal advice, IT is re-engineering the entire legal process, resulting in legal products and information services focused on dispute pre-emption rather than dispute resolution, and legal risk management rather than legal problem solving. With easy and inexpensive access available, IT will help to integrate the law with business and domestic life. This book explores the implications, opportunities, and challenges presented by the information society as it irrevocably changes how law will be practised and justice administered. In this paperback edition, the author provides a substantial new preface which develops many of his central themes and takes account of likely developments in technology. The message for lawyers remains a stark one: in order to guarantee a stake in the legal system of the future, lawyers must adapt their working practices or die. The message for everyone else is an empowering one: they can now demand radically improved legal services, and if lawyers cannot provide this, many others will. From the reviews of the hardback: `A work of considerable scholarship and significance ... The Future of Law maps out a way forward in uncertain, but exciting, times. This ought to beand in due course will becompulsory reading for civil servants in the Lord Chancellors Department. This is not simply a book for computer enthusiasts. The general reader will gain particular benefit from this book. As just such a one, but with aspirations to be otherwise, I benefited enormously.' The ObserverR `The book's style is welcoming and describes a convincing scenario which law firms must address or discount if they wish to survive the onset of the virtual community. This work is strongly recommended to all persons involved, however tangential, in the provision of legal services and for those who seek to make use of them.' New Law Journal `There are 40 pages of practical advice for solicitors practices of all sizes offering gravy-soaked chunks of prime consultancy that are worth the price of the book. You should read this book if you are at all interested in the development of legal practice to enable you to make sufficiently informed decisions for securing the future you would wish for your practice.' Law Society Gazette

PART I: THE CURRENT REALITIES; PART II: UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN THE LAW; PART III: THE IMPACT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ON THE LAW; PART IV: THE MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES; PART V: THE FUTURE