Susskind criticises law schools stuck in ‘the 1970s’

Law schools in the UK have come under fire from legal technology expert Richard Susskind for continuing to teach law “as it was in the 1970s”, Legal Futures reports.

Professor Susskind (pictured), speaking at the Westminster Legal Policy Forum, warned that UK law schools were lagging behind the US, where around 20 law schools offer courses on legal technology or the future of legal services.

He said: “What are we training our young lawyers in very large numbers to become? Are we expecting them to be traditional, bespoke, face-to-face advisers who charge by the hour?

“Or should we be producing lawyers who are flexible, team-based, technological, sophisticated and commercially astute – hybrid individuals who can transcend traditional boundaries?

“I don’t think the 2020s will be a decade of unemployment, as some doom and gloom merchants would have us believe; I think it will be a decade of redeployment.”

Professor Susskind said law students should have the option of studying the future of legal services, and new skills including “project management, knowledge engineering or risk management”.

He added: “We should be rethinking how we teach and not just what we teach. Legal services are transforming at an ever-increasing rate, so legal education must transform itself at least as fast, if not faster.”

Richard and Daniel Susskind discuss the role of technology in the future of the legal profession in their book, The Future of the Professions. The pair were interviewed last year in Scottish Legal News.