Turn and face the ch-ch-changes, Susskind warns LETR

The recommendations of the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) will quickly become irrelevant if they fail to address the rapid changes taking place in the legal services market, Professor Richard Susskind has warned.

Susskind's concerns were raised in a paper which was published in October as part of the research stage of the LETR, the recommendations of which are due in December. In the paper, Susskind argues against using technology to streamline the current system and instead recommends the innovative use of IT to create entirely new training methods, such as simulated legal practice environments. Susskind also emphasises the importance of acknowledging how new legal service providers (eg, alternative business structures), advances in IT and probable changes to the economy will change the way in which legal services are likely to be delivered.

Among his predictions is that there will be a decrease in the number of traditional lawyers, who will be replaced by a much wider range of legal professionals. Susskind identifies three phenomena - the demand among private and corporate clients for more legal services at a lower cost, the revolutionary potential of information technology and the liberalisation of the market following the Legal Services Act 2007 - as key causes of the major changes he predicts for the profession.

Professor Julian Webb, head of the LETR research team, commented: "It is important that the review builds on as good an understanding as possible of how the delivery of legal services is likely to change in the foreseeable future and of the ways in which legal education and training could better prepare tomorrow's lawyers for those changes. As an independent and highly respected thought leader in the field, Richard Susskind is extremely well placed to comment on the trends and challenges ahead. We welcome his report as a thoughtful and sometimes provocative contribution to the review. Its conclusions will be helpful in developing the research team's final report and recommendations."