It’s no secret that technology is changing the face of law practice, particularly as millennials enter the workforce, bringing with them an increased reliance on technology and a desire for alternative work arrangements.

A quick look around the world at how legal technology is being received is summed up in the following stats:

• 75% of law firms spend over 4% of gross billings on IT infrastructure and software.
• In a survey of 80 legal professionals conducted by The Legal Festival, nearly 50% of respondents said the biggest challenge to driving innovation within their organisation was finding enough time and money to step away from “business as usual.”
• More than 50% of lawyers expect AI, big data, predictive analytics and machine learning to make an impact.
• However, less than one-quarter of lawyers say they actually understand these transformative technologies.
• 50-80% of tasks carried out by junior lawyers will be automated by LegalTech in the near future.

As legal services are being delivered in this increasingly digitised world, it's clear that the traditional way of doing things cannot guarantee survival. In order to adapt to these inevitable changes within law firms or in-house legal teams, there needs to be more focus on the interconnection between people, process and technology.

This is the focus of the free webinar, The 21st Century Lawyer, which will be hosted by LexisNexis South Africa on Wednesday, 28 July at 10h00. Based on the e-learning course of the same name, developed by Kevin van Tonder, who has over 25 years of legal experience, the session aims to help guide the next generation of lawyers to be better lawyers and to transform a profession that has largely remained the same for hundreds of years, in terms of how legal services are delivered.

Kevin has extensive experience in legal operations, compliance and people development in many challenging jurisdictions and is a champion of the benefits of diversity in the legal sector.

In this session, he will cover aspects including:

• How does one define a 21st Century Lawyer?
• Key trends impacting legal services
• Ethical duty to be technology competent
• Tips, tools and techniques for ensuring success as a 21st Century Lawyer

Both in-house legal practitioners and those in law firms will benefit from these insights into what customers will expect from them in this increasingly digitised world. The content has been endorsed by leading in-house legal practitioners and corporate lawyers.

Matthew Welz, Head of Legal at Clicks, said, "Any in-house counsel who has not recognised that our ways-of-work and the expectations of our roles are changing, is being left behind. Kevin's course highlighted and contextualised some of these changes, and provided me with a useful base from which to assess my own team's progress and the direction in which we are moving.”

Louis Gqoboka, Senior Legal Advisor: Head of Investments at Alexander Forbes, said, "The course reaches lawyers about "design thinking" in order to create efficiencies and free up much needed time to better service clients. It further teaches lawyers to think more broadly about disruption that has already occurred in other sectors and how those provide key learnings that can be applied in the legal tech field."

Register now for the 21st Century Lawyer webinar: https://relx.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xvTVVqgJTtSPpxcxWE5Dag