Headline this evening in The Lawyer “Firms to go bust will top 3,000, says Mayson”.

TAKE NOTE.

Mayson is Professor Stepen Mayson, director of the College of Law’s new Legal Services Policy Institute, who is giving his inaugral speech tonight.

This warning echoes similar warnings made by Professor Mayson at a Law Society presentation I attended back in mid February on Alternative Business Structures under the Legal Services Act.  That night, he began his address by saying he was alarmed at the general “complacency” and “ignorance” within the profession about its future, based on his experience of talking to firms up and down the land.  His talk then still resonates.  So will his speech tonight.

When I collected my real world post this morning, I almost fell over when I read the main headline in Legal Week "Big Bang put on hold as Legal Services Bill delayed till 2010".  I was lost for words.  The implications of the delay will take time to consider, especially as many organisations have been gearing up for the earlier change.

Quoting briefly from the article, Bircham Dyson Bell public law partner Nick Brown told Legal Week: “I am surprised there is a delay. I cannot see it is necessary to take so long as there has been a lot of preparation for this legislation.”

One can only imagine the forces at work behind the scene.

The arrival of this story this morning on the timing of change in the legal world contrasts markedly with the constant theme of thousands of blog posts I have read in the last few weeks, which is the exponential change currently taking place in the world of new media and social tools.

The "Did You Know?" video from 2006 will be very different from the 2008 version and certainly very different from the 2010 version.  A change of UK government may also have something to say on the subject.

This a short version response to Dennis Kennedy's short version of his great article yesterday.

In Seven Legal Technology Trends for 2007 - Widening the Digital Divide in Law Practice, your expressions “technology-forward lawyers” and “technology-backward lawyers” are absolutely apposite and apply equally in the UK.  The current backdrop is simply the Legal Services Act once enacted later in 2007.  Which firms will embrace the opportunities for change and progress, and which will bury their heads in the sand?

Only last night, I attended a major event at The Law Society in London on “Alternative Business Structures” under the Act.  Professor Stephen Mayson, Director of the Legal Services Policy Institute, began his address by saying he was alarmed at the general “complacency” and “ignorance” within the profession about its future, based on his experience of talking to firms up and down the land.

If a law business is not using IT to gain at least some competitive advantage, it does beg the question what is the real purpose of having IT?  Technology in a law practice is surely more than just a simple utility like water and electricity?

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