Digital Dictionary

L

Law (Professions of –)

Christophe Mondou

ERDP-CRDP, Université de Lille, France

Digital technology and the legal profession: an augmented lawyer of tomorrow?

“The legal world is facing a major technological shock” (Deffains 2018). Yet, seeing the judge in a courtroom, the lawyer during pleading, the attorney in an office, or the bailiff in action, it seemed difficult to anticipate how these professions would be impacted by digital developments. Moreover, legal professionals have been rather reluctant to embrace the new technologies. However, the development of legaltech (technologies serving the law), which have taken advantage of the space left by the legal professions to take a significant place in the world of the legal services market, has shown the need for these professionals to react to the digital advances that are likely to modify their activities (Mossé 2018).

Of course, not all legal professions are equally affected by the digital revolution. There are essential differences between the professions of lawyer, attorney, court clerk, bailiff, in-house or administrative lawyer and law professor, to mention only the most traditional professions directly related to law. Nevertheless, functionally, all the legal professions are concerned either by the issues that are common to them or by certain activities that are specific to them. However, there is still one factor that digital technology cannot replace, at least for the time being, and that is the human element at ...