Blog post | Skills of the future lawyer

Disruption, AI, yada yada yada.

We all know the legal industry is a-changing, so what can we do about it? What skills will we need to adapt for the future?

We think lawyers of the future need to be adaptable (apparently “AQ” is the new EQ), flexible, curious about and comfortable with technology, strategic, empathetic, personable, humble, creative, commercial, have a business mindset, understand design thinking principles, foster positive change for their teams, clients and communities, possess leadership skills, and communicate and connect with others on a genuine and human level (#bringthehumanback)– all on top of being fantastic technical lawyers. That sounds like a lot doesn’t it! Perhaps we should describe it as a love of continuous learning and improvement instead. On the subject of learning, we also need to learn skills from other professions (like business people, IT professionals etc), so we can all adapt for the needs of the future - we can’t just stay in our legal slow lane and expect the borders not to change. We need to swim over to the fast lane with the rest of them!

What other skills do you think a future lawyer needs to possess?