TY - JOUR

T1 - New Technologies and Law Firms - An Uneasy Relationship

T2 - A European Perspective

AU - Caserta, Salvatore

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - The digitalization of law has become a mantra. Law firms across the globe have begun to invest in legal-tech solutions in order to maintain a competitive edge in an increasingly changing market of legal services providers. While for many this foresees a disruption of the dynamics of the legal field, law firms have proven relatively resilient to radical change. With few exceptions, law firms continue practicing law as usual, while adding a few innovative tools to their old work dynamics to increase efficiency and revenue. This paper takes stock of the state of the art of the digitalization of law firms in Denmark and Italy, two Continental European countries often understudied in term of the sociology of the legal profession. After presenting the scholarship on new technologies and law firms as well as the specificities of the Danish and Italian legal fields, by relying on qualitative interviews with key players of the legal-tech and law firms' environment in the two countries, the paper shows that both Danish and Italian law firms are reluctant to embrace technological change. The paper also identifies two factors that contribute to explain such a reluctance on the part of law firms to fully digitalized their practices: 1) the partnership as the main organizational form of law firms; and 2) the inherent tension between the market oriented, capitalistic nature of digital technologies and the professional nature of legal practice. The paper concludes by exploring the few Danish and Italian actors that are taking digital developments more seriously, showing that these are chiefly recently established legal tech start-ups and medium-size boutique law firms.

AB - The digitalization of law has become a mantra. Law firms across the globe have begun to invest in legal-tech solutions in order to maintain a competitive edge in an increasingly changing market of legal services providers. While for many this foresees a disruption of the dynamics of the legal field, law firms have proven relatively resilient to radical change. With few exceptions, law firms continue practicing law as usual, while adding a few innovative tools to their old work dynamics to increase efficiency and revenue. This paper takes stock of the state of the art of the digitalization of law firms in Denmark and Italy, two Continental European countries often understudied in term of the sociology of the legal profession. After presenting the scholarship on new technologies and law firms as well as the specificities of the Danish and Italian legal fields, by relying on qualitative interviews with key players of the legal-tech and law firms' environment in the two countries, the paper shows that both Danish and Italian law firms are reluctant to embrace technological change. The paper also identifies two factors that contribute to explain such a reluctance on the part of law firms to fully digitalized their practices: 1) the partnership as the main organizational form of law firms; and 2) the inherent tension between the market oriented, capitalistic nature of digital technologies and the professional nature of legal practice. The paper concludes by exploring the few Danish and Italian actors that are taking digital developments more seriously, showing that these are chiefly recently established legal tech start-ups and medium-size boutique law firms.

U2 - 10.5204/lthj.2246

DO - 10.5204/lthj.2246

M3 - Journal article

VL - 4

SP - 183

EP - 196

JO - Law, Technology and Humans

JF - Law, Technology and Humans

SN - 2652-4074

IS - 2

ER -