A Story from ABA TECHSHOW — Thoughtful Legal Management

.♫ And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun….♫

Lyrics and Music by David Gilmour, Nicholas Mason, Roger Waters, Rick Wright, recorded by Pink Floyd.

One of the most interesting things I did just prior to Techshow was to attend a small group presentation hosted by Bob Christensen of The Form Tool and Doxsera in advance of Techshow.  Bob’s presentation focused on change and in particular, the effect of change on the legal profession.  In order to set the stage, Bob started by noting that in earliest dawn of man, one major change appeared in say, 10,000 generations.  That has gradually accelerated to the point where today, we are seeing four major changes appearing in a single generation.

So what has that got to do with the legal profession, you say?

Bob noted that the structure of the legal business was established in the 1700s.  We continue to use that structure more or less today.

Bob continued by noting that the watchmaking industry was started at about this same time.  During that same period, watchmakers were some of the wealthiest people around and handmade watches cost a considerable amount.  Now fast forward to today…to the world of Timex.   A $29.95 Timex watch today keeps far better time than the best hand made watch of the past.

Furthermore, 60{9e5c399d4686ffbee71f542e7a95a67178027d042b67cd6e8c3b22a26beb12ba} of the number of watches in circulation has plummeted  – due to the appearance of smartphones.  The members of the new generation do not buy watches – they all have smartphones that keep accurate time.  They do not see the need.

Bob stated this is just an example of the fact that “the consumer will always dominate the marketplace.”  And that applies just as equally to the legal profession.

He noted three major themes in life today:

Theme #1 – the rate of change is accelerating

Theme #2 – that evolution always starts at the top.  It is incremental.

Theme #3 – that revolution comes from the bottom.  And revolution is always disruptive.

Bob noted that www.LegalZoom.com  has taught the legal marketplace (but not lawyers) that legal documents should be free or at least low cost.

Bob challenged the lawyers in the room to see themselves in the same position as the watchmakers of the past who made hand-made watches for high prices.  Revolution = Disruption = Technology is coming.

A word about Bob’s latest product: Doxsera.  Doxsera is priced at  $89 / year (USD).  It is a very sophisticated document assembly engine for Word for Windows (sorry it doesn’t work in Word on the Mac).

What makes Doxsera different?  It pulls in vast amounts of info into multiple documents and assembles documents in a way that is unique and very cost-effective.   You don’t just assemble one document – you assemble a group of documents all relating to say, a closing or real estate transaction etc.  You can take a process that in the past, had to be used to produce documents in a serial process (one after another) to the point where it can produce a whole grouping of documents at one time (parallel processing).  Bob is trying to demonstrate to lawyers how they can produce legal documents at low cost.  Think of his product as taking the legal production process as moving from making expensive hand-made watches to producing inexpensive Timex watches.

However, after his talk I couldn’t help looking back over my shoulder for the legal equivalent of the smartphone. Hmmm….perhaps it is just a matter of time..