Richard Susskind & The End of Lawyers and the Future of Women in The Law
What I learned from the blog postings on my book, Solo by Choice is that most reviewers apparently don't bother to actually read the entire book. Now, this might have given me a bit of a complex except now I realize that I'm in good company. Seems that many readers overlooked one of Richard Susskind's blockbuster predictions about the future of women lawyers that comes at the tail end (p. 283) of The End of Lawyers.
Given Susskind's emphasis on the dominant role that technology will play in the practice of law, you might assume that Susskind expects women lawyers to lose ground. After all, many of us stereotypically associate technological aptitude and love-of-all-gizmos-and-gadgets with men rather than women. But Susskind recognizes that the quality that we women bring to the table lies in our ability to empathize. This in turn, enables us to recognize the value of technology not as an end in itself, but as a tool to serve clients more efficiently, effectively and creatively. Here's what Susskind has to say about the types of people who will be our best lawyers in the future:
the legal world today is dominated by "left brain" thinkers who will not find it easy to empathize. And of course, there is an interesting correlation between the "male brain" and the "female brain" [in that] the typical male brain systematizes while the female brain empathizes....if the twin forces of commoditization and IT do indeed combine to create a legal environment in which much legal work is standardized and computerized, then we can well imagine that those individuals who are in the future responsible for innovating, designing, marketing and selling a multi-sourced legal service will not be traditional left brain males but far more creative, innovative, artistic an often female lawyers.
Of course, solo female lawyers have always known this secret. Many of us embrace technology to run contract law practices or virtual law offices or to help lawyers navigate the ins and outs of Web 2.0. To be sure, these technology-driven practices afford flexibility to spend time with family. But more importantly, these practices are a product of the "empathetic female brain" that Susskind references because they respond to previously unmet needs, whether it's a demand by clients for affordable legal services or a stressed out lawyer's need for assistance with overflow legal work.
Sadly, though, (but most typical), women at biglaw continue to look back instead of ahead. While the well-respected Susskind has essentially handed women lawyers the keys to the castle, they're too busy trying to resurrect the stale, top-down work life balance policies that never worked in the past to listen.
Like you said, women solos have always known the secret and can be innovative with empathy towards their client base...always with the client in mind.
While it always seems couched in work/life balance for the(female) practitioner, the reality is the goal for work life balance does in fact help us to understand our client's needs better because we can relate to their need for efficiency. Empathy is a highly underrated quality in lawyers and one solos use to their advantage (especially women.)