Towards a future proof attorney-at-law?
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2021-10-13
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en
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Abstract
The legal industry seems to be resistant for change, causing a huge debate on the (lacking) use of legal technology by attorneys-at-law in law firms. This grounded research focuses on the question: “How have attorneys-at-law who use legal tech in Dutch law firms constructed their professional identity resulting from the accessibility and adoption of legal tech?” The goal of this research was to gain an understanding of the meaning for attorneys-at-law to use legal tech within their work. Much regarding legal tech that is used by attorneys-at-law in Dutch law firms appeared to be unknown. For this reason, research-based knowledge resulting from conversations with experts, reports, trade magazines and a webinar is also empirically gained in order to provide a frame in which the identity construction can be interpreted. Interviews were conducted with ten attorneys-at-law by video call and interpreted with a grounded comparative analysis. The results provide a description of how the participants define their professional identity as well as how they have constructed this identity resulting from the accessibility and adoption of legal tech. It was found that the participants experienced changes in their roles and tasks. Their role as advising partner of the client broadened and an additional role focused on (process & tech) innovation was created. The participants had distinguished meaningfulness in work and constructed their professional identity. They positively differentiated themselves from the ‘traditional’ attorney-at-law and were found to have or gained knowledge and skills to work with legal tech. Their constructed identity was influenced by factors in their environment. As this research was explorative, the results are discussed based on the research findings.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen