A Digital Legal Profession?

Abstract

Through the concept of digital capitalism, this article addresses the evolution and change of the legal profession in the digital age. In particular, the article explains how the increasing use of new technologies in the practice of law is I) causing conceptual and practical changes in the work of the jurist II) producing structural alterations in the organizational architecture of law firms. With regard to I), it is argued that the use of digital technologies, particularly generative technologies, has the capacity to alter the role and work of the jurist in many of its aspects, even if at the moment the available technologies are still rudimentary. With regard to II), the article proposes three structural adjustments for law firms to fully exploit the potential of new technologies: a law firm less based on partnership and more on corporate organizational models, a multidisciplinary law firm, and a law firm ready to subcontract some tasks to external entities, particularly those dependent on the use of standardized technologies.