Nicole Black, BridgeTower Media Newswires
How much did the pandemic change your life? What about your law practice? Were the effects significant or peripheral? Did your law firm change the way it functioned in order to adapt to remote working challenges? Or did your firm take advantage of new technologies in order to maintain operability during the pandemic? Is remote work more common in your law firm as a result of changing expectations? Finally, is videoconferencing now part of your regular practice?
Undoubtedly the answer to at least one of these questions is “yes.” If so, you’re not alone. No matter how you look at it, the impact of the last few years has been very different from person to person. However, the systemic and structural changes that have occurred on a macro and micro level are undeniable and all signs indicate they’ll be long-lasting.
You need look no further than the legal industry for examples of seismic shifts happening in real-time. For instance, in New York, three recent initiatives showcase the continued effect that the changes wrought by the pandemic have had and will have on the lives of legal professionals.
First, there’s news I wrote about earlier this month. Soon all New York lawyers will have to complete one hour of cybersecurity continuing legal education as part of their biannual registration requirement. The Order establishing this requirement was issued on June 10, 2022, and takes effect on Jan. 1, 2023.
No longer will New York attorneys be able to hide their heads in the sand and shirk their responsibility to learn about technology. Instead, lawyers will be required to learn about cybersecurity, privacy, data protection, and ethics, thus enabling them to make educated, informed technology choices.
This requirement is evidence of an emerging trend in the state. The cybersecurity CLE requirement and a few other recent changes are indicative of a shift toward acknowledging the positive impact technology is having on the practice of law.
For example, in October the Commission to Reimagine the Future of New York’s Courts will meet for the second time. The Committee will hold hearings on Oct. 6 and 31 focused on evaluating the technology, practices, and policies adopted by the courts since the onset of the pandemic. The goal will be to review how the implemented technologies and policies affected the experiences of court personnel, attorneys, and litigants at all court levels.
Similarly, the New York State Bar Association has also taken steps to better understand how technology can improve the state’s criminal justice system and increase access to justice. The NYSBA announced this month that it was launching the Task Force on the Modernization of Criminal Practice.
To that end, it will consist of three sub-committees: 1) The Subcommittee on Justice Courts, 2) The Subcommittee on Sentencing Reform, and 3) The Subcommittee on Technology. Through the work of these sub-committees, the Task Force will seek to better understand how new laws, technologies, and policies can be implemented to create more efficiency and fairness in the administration of criminal justice.
What struck me about all three recent announcements was the common thread of seeking to understand and leverage technological innovation to the benefit of lawyers and the clients they serve. This much-needed interest and curiosity about technology have been a long time coming. Unfortunately, it took a pandemic to get us here, but you won’t catch me complaining about this particular outcome. Technology is a positive force that is here to stay, and at long last, the legal profession is showing signs of embracing this indisputable truth.
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Nicole Black is a Rochester, New York attorney, author, journalist, and the Legal Technology Evangelist at MyCase legal practice management software. She is the nationally-recognized author of "Cloud Computing for Lawyers" (2012) and co-authors "Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Frontier" (2010), both published by the American Bar Association. She also co-authors "Criminal Law in New York," a Thomson Reuters treatise. She writes regular columns for Above the Law, ABA Journal, and The Daily Record, has authored hundreds of articles for other publications, and regularly speaks at conferences regarding the intersection of law and emerging technologies. She is an ABA Legal Rebel, and is listed on the Fastcase 50 and ABA LTRC Women in Legal Tech. She can be contacted at niki.black@mycase.com.
