New Work Panel
Digitization, automation, Artificial Intelligence, work-life-blending, collaboration, remote work, and agility were at the core of the discussion on New Work which had going from ‘living to work’ to ‘working to live’ as its motto. In search of a definition of New Work in the legal field, renowned experts Ines Maria Curtius, Andrea Miskolczi, Elaine L. Arozarena, Miriam A. Cherry, Valerie Saintôt, Veronika Haberler, and Lukas Flener questioned whether New Work is about technology, a change of mindset, the human factor, access to justice, the billable hour process or the commodification of legal deliverables.
Making ‘working to live’ a sustainable concept through legal technology.
Revisiting how lawyers practice their profession and considering their changing work environment, in particular the accelerating development brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, the panelists agreed that New Work represents an overhaul of our legal ecosystem and working process. In this regard, the discussion revealed that the legal profession is increasingly multidisciplinary since experts in technology or business substantially contribute to the legal ecosystem nowadays.
Use new technology to automate routines, free up time for truly servicing clients, and thus create fulfilling and creative value work and improve access to justice.
While highlighting the value of human interactions, the panelists also discussed augmenting the legal profession with technology and taking technology as an opportunity to perform better at a potentially better price since this could, consequently, lead to better access to justice.
Flatten hierarchies and foster inter-generational learning.
Finally, the panelists presented the benefits of fostering intergenerational sustainability in the legal professions. The panelists argued that cooperating bottom-up, top-down, young to senior, and vice versa allows professionals to avoid repeating mistakes from yesterday and enables them to tackle today’s problems adequately.