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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