If you read the whole article, it is about the need for lawyers to innovate and change, not about an "end" of the profession (unless the "end" is of practicing law in a way that does not fit in the 21st century). I realize the writer is using the title of Susskind's book but the proposition is not about end of lawyers; instead the book and the article are about, well, is this word too sensational: transformation? From the article with the misleading title:
When Richard Susskind predicted in 1996 that lawyers would soon send most legal advice and documents through e-mail, he was dismissed by his British brethren as a threat to the profession.
Today e-mail is as common as the office phone, but 12 years ago the Internet was only taking baby steps and Mr. Susskind's digital forecast was seen as blasphemy to a profession that has imparted advice and arguments on written paper for hundreds of years.
“The idea of a lawyer not sending a letter was revolutionary, it was unthinkable, unimaginable. … I was seen as a seriously dangerous person. I was told my ideas were offending a traditional profession and I was dismissed as fanciful,” Mr. Susskind said.
It took only a few years of Internet innovation to vindicate Mr. Susskind, a Scottish-born, Oxford-educated lawyer and legal technology consultant based in England. Now his futurism is rattling the
profession again, this time with a new book called The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services.
'The classic interface between lawyers and clients is disappearing because online services are replacing it,” says lawyer Richard Susskind.
In Mr. Susskind's vision of the future, small law firms that dispense customized legal advice will be pushed out of business by technology-savvy and more nimble firms that dispense run-of-the-mill advice and legal documents through websites. Larger law firms will evolve into commercial enterprises with vast stables of legal, accounting and other experts geared to preventing and managing clients' legal risks. These big firms will outsource basic legal services to cheaper quasi-legal experts and they will build retail kiosks or websites that allow clients to download regulatory expertise and draft legal documents any hour of the day.
...
Mr. Susskind predicts a “radical shakeup” of law firm billing practices that charge clients according to hours of service provided. The days of billable hours are numbered, he said, because it “rewards inefficiency” by handing the largest pay for the most time spent on an assignment.
“Clients are becoming more savvy and more discerning. … We can no longer look at these changes in our leisure. If you want to compete as a law firm you are going to have to change,” he said.
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