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ShawnFettyFirstPaper 15 - 29 Jan 2012 - Main.ShawnFetty
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< | Actively being revised. More to come as I continue to recast the problem. | >
> | 1/29 Actively being revised. More to come as I continue to recast the problem. | | | | | | Lawyering has not joined the wide range of activities fundamentally transformed by the Web. At its peak, a lawyer’s trade is justice and good judgment, but the job ultimately consists of client advocacy, counseling, and relationship structuring. While many lawyers use the Web for advertising and research, few lawyers use it in a way that particularly affects these basic functions. | |
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< | The Web is first and foremost a means of connecting people. If lawyers were able to effectively harness the Web, we imagine they might streamline the manufacture of legal work-product, offering the pursuit of justice where there is none—or at least cheaper legal services. Legal representation would evolve as lawyers explored opportunities to meet, confer, and collaborate with colleagues regardless of distance. | >
> | The Web is first and foremost a means of connecting people. In our case, this means connecting clients to lawyers and also connecting lawyers to people who can enhance their practice, be they other, similarly situated lawyers or specialists of another kind entirely. If lawyers were able to effectively harness the Web to create broader networks of legal services, we imagine they might streamline the manufacture of legal work-product, offering the pursuit of justice where there is none—or at least cheaper legal services. Legal representation would evolve as lawyers explored opportunities to meet, confer, and collaborate with colleagues regardless of distance. | | | | |
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< | Lawyers need not distribute their workload through the Web (as a software developer might do) for this to be the case. Even if we assume that the individual client requires a local lawyer’s particularized care, the Web is useful for lawyers because it provides a rich environment for the evolution of ideas. Moreover, good judgment is informed by experience: an asset that is excellently shared through the Web. Thus, there is good reason to assume that the Web can uplift legal practice as a whole. | >
> | Lawyers need not distribute their workload through the Web (as a software developer might do) for this to be the case. Even if we assume that the individual client requires a local lawyer’s particularized care, the Web is useful for lawyers because it provides a rich environment for the evolution and exchange of ideas. Moreover, good judgment is informed by experience: an asset that is excellently shared through the Web. Thus, there is good reason to assume that the Web can uplift legal practice as a whole. | | | Notwithstanding the possibilities, however, attempts to integrate the Web into legal practice to-date have been mostly unsuccessful. Why? | |
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< | II) 1) Legal practice has several characteristics that thwart Web-based collaboration. | >
> | II)Legal practice has several characteristics that thwart Web-based collaboration. | | | 1) The openness promoted by the Web directly undercuts lawyers’ sacrosanct duty to protect their clients’ confidences. |
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