Tomorrow has already arrived when it comes to legal training

I have just finished reading Tomorrow's Lawyers by Richard Susskind, a law professor with a variety of roles advising governments and businesses on planning for the long term.

Although he is writing primarily for an English audience, it contains much of interest to Hong Kong.

Susskind's primary audience is the person who is thinking of a legal career or is in the early stages of such a career. He encourages young people to pursue a legal career while informing them of challenges and opportunities ahead.

He argues that current ways of doing legal business are susceptible to change. There are three reasons, he says. The first is that financial constraints mean lawyers - those working in-house and at law firms - will be forced to do more for less. The second factor is the opening up of legal work to other types of businesses, which will bring new ideas and other types of expertise to the provision of legal services. Information technology is the third disrupting force he identifies.

I left the book with the idea that if any part of the legal process can be usefully automated, commodified or outsourced, it will be. This does not mean all of it will or should be dealt with in this way. One of the challenges facing the law firm of the future will be deciding on the type of arrangement that is suitable for each part of its business.

This may sound like a dystopian vision of the future, but the spirit of the book is extremely positive. Innovative solutions will be developed that meet the needs of potential consumers - people who need legal advice but for whom the current models of dispensing it are not cost-effective.