Customer Reviews

Transforming the Law: Essays on Technology, Justice and the Legal Marketplace

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This wonderful book is very different from most legal technology books, which concentrate on tactics: which word processor to choose, which case management system is best, how to secure an intranet. This book concentrates instead on the strategic implications of new technology, especially the Internet, on the legal profession.

One of the highlights of the book is helping lawyers understand why large accounting/consulting firms are a threat, and how lawyers can compete more effectively. The book is also good at showing ways to do what consultant Tom Peters has called "baking a new pie." Instead of merely competing more intensely for known existing markets, create a new market that you will dominate.

This is the most important book I have ever read about the impact of technology on law firms.

Jerry Lawson, Author of The Complete Internet Handbook for Lawyers (ABA 1999)

What impact is the Internet revolution having on the practice of law? If you read most mainstream legal publications you would think the answer is very little. Or you might sense that most of the change has occurred already. Richard Susskind understands the larger forces that are going to dictate how law is practiced in the immediate future. His explanation is cogent, well thought-out, and compelling.

The idea that market forces will compel lawyers to provide better services to a larger class of people at a lower cost is not something that most lawyers want to hear. Of course, travel agents didn't want to hear that people were going to start booking their own travel online either (same with stock brokers).

If you have read and enjoyed the Cluetrain Manifesto then check this book out, even if you only have a passing interest in the law. If you are a lawyer and expect to be practicing for another ten years then to ignore the ideas expressed in Susskind's book is dangerous.