The term “law new” has been bandied about in recent years to describe new approaches to legal services, alternative delivery models and strategies for helping businesses solve their problems. But it is hard to pin down what exactly this means. For some, it merely refers to the use of different methods to conduct legal practice – whether that be working with underserved communities or employing non-lawyers on staff. But it can also refer to entirely new ways of delivering legal services and using technology.
The real definition of law new is what happens when all legal stakeholders rethink their role in serving legal consumers and society-at-large. This is a fundamental paradigm shift from service providers to customer-centricity that will drive the evolution of the legal industry. It will replace the prevailing business model driven by legal education, legacy delivery models and outdated dispute resolution mechanisms with an integrated delivery structure based on customer impact resulting in high net promoter scores. It will eradicate artificial, lawyer-created distinctions between provider sources and provide a fluid and dynamic delivery structure from which agile, on-demand resources with verifiable, material expertise and experience can be sourced. Profit will not come from adherence to a fee-based, lawyer-centric economic model that rewards input but from a purpose-driven, customer-centric, data-backed and tech-enabled model fueled by output and an increasing demand for innovation.
While it has been around for decades, the legal industry is just now beginning to undergo a transformation. The change is largely driven by large buyers and the need to address a range of legal challenges more efficiently. This is creating an opportunity for firms, startup companies and law firm subsidiaries to take advantage of the shift by leveraging new technologies, processes and methodologies that allow them to offer innovative solutions to legal challenges that were previously intractable.
In this way, these emerging legal entities are redefining the meaning of law new. They are proving that newer and more innovative legal solutions can be delivered in the same or less time than the traditional law firm model, and that they can compete with larger, better-financed rivals. The most successful of these new entrants are those that recognize that their greatest strength is not their legal knowledge, but their ability to adapt to customers’ needs and expectations in an ever-changing environment.
To become a law, a bill must first be introduced in either the House of Representatives or the Senate by a member of Congress. Each chamber has its own process for researching, discussing and making changes to the bill before it is put up for a vote. Once a bill becomes a law, it is published in the United States Statutes at Large, a collection of laws enacted by Congress. Read the statutes online.