When US-based law firm Orrick wanted to improve its UK company incorporation process in 2022, it tasked a team of lawyers with streamlining the process.
Orrick Labs, a venture that works on legal tech solutions for clients, developed a digital form that simplifies its UK incorporation process. As part of Orrick’s strategy to train young lawyers as technologists, the firm assigned two associates to work closely with the Orrick Labs legal tech specialists on the project.
“We . . . think about the lawyer of the future as a ‘trifecta’ of part-lawyer, part-business counsellor and part-technologist,” says Kate Orr, Washington-based global head of practice innovation for Orrick. The project covered all three.
The team revamped the UK incorporation process again last year, and it was one of several legal tech projects Orrick assigned to associates. “The project blended legal insight, user-focused design, and basic process engineering,” Orr says, and was an example of how lawyers and technologists work together on practical improvements.
The need for lawyers to master the tech tools that are increasingly part of everyday lawyering is well-established. Now, as generative artificial intelligence is rolled out across the globe, law firms and law schools alike are focusing more than ever on how the next generation of lawyers will broaden their skills.
