As legal technology advances and business change accelerates, new ways of delivering legal services are emerging. Often, these new models are called “law new.” While the precise definition of law new differs from person to person, it generally refers to an alternative form of practice that uses innovative technologies to deliver value to clients and to transform the legal industry. It may also encompass a distinct delivery structure that involves separate staffers from partners or associates and does not occur in traditional law firms.
In recent years, many of the most significant changes in legal services have come from these “law new” providers – companies, startups and even law firm subsidiaries augmenting existing firms. These providers use a variety of strategies, technologies and structures to provide legal services. Many use a business model that includes a non-partner track and a different fee structure, as well as legal tech to streamline processes and deliver results more efficiently. They typically do not have the cultural, financial and management constraints that come with a law firm.
While this law new model is not the only way that legal services are being delivered, it has become one of the most visible and fastest growing. It has changed the nature of legal work, shifted where and how lawyers do it, and has ushered in a period of unprecedented innovation in the delivery of legal services.
The law new phenomenon has created new jobs and career paths for experienced attorneys and paralegals. It has also changed the way that lawyers manage their clients and how they collaborate with other legal professionals. In addition, it has led to the development of an entirely new generation of legal talent.
In an era of constant disruption and change, the new law will increasingly resemble its corporate customers and society in general. It will have a multidisciplinary, team-oriented approach that is customer-centric and integrated across the enterprise. It will employ a diverse workforce that is creative, technology and data proficient, and empathetic. This workforce will leverage its mastery of data’s prime values – capture, unification, applied human and artificial intelligence, visualization, real-time refresh and decision driving – to help businesses identify, proactively address, avoid and mitigate risk, and better capture business opportunities.
Local Law 13 of 2022
This bill would require City agencies to provide employees and job applicants with notice regarding student loan forgiveness programs, and to make the notice available to other employers in New York City. The bill also amends the law to align its definition of private identifying information with that in New York’s SHIELD Act, and to clarify the application of State and federal data breach notification laws to City agencies.