Will Lawyers Become "legal Risk Consultants?
ABAJournal.com reported last week on a futurist’s prediction that lawyers advising corporations will change their practices to offer a wide range of advice on how to avoid legal problems. The post, “Futurist Says Lawyers Will Become Legal Risk Consultants” was by Debra Cassens Weiss. The futurist is Richars Susskind and his predictions are made in an interview in Am Law Daily.
We would like to think that we are in the forefront of that trend although we advise smaller businesses and individuals, not major corporations. The premise of this blog is that by studying trends and events in litigation, we can derive not only broad principles for managing legal risks but better practices for managing business and personal assets.
On the surface, it may seem like an idealistic position but there are many, many practical examples. To cite one example, a recent post commented on performance reviews as a rich source of evidence for either side in employment litigation. But, it is not a stretch that if you manage performance reviews effectively, you will effectively manage performance.
So, we tend to agree with the futurist cited by ABAJournal.com that lawyers advising businesses will in the future position themselves as “legal risk consultants” and we venture to predict that litigation will become “dispute resolution.”
