Blumer, Noor --- "Editorial: Ready for a new era?" [2020] PrecedentAULA 51; (2020) 160 Precedent 2

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READY FOR A NEW ERA?

By Noor Blumer

I know from experience that the themes for each edition of Precedent are decided about a year in advance. When choosing ‘modern legal practice’, the committee must have been psychic.

Work practices that were considered ‘innovative’ and ‘modern’ at the beginning of 2020 are looking passé as we head towards the end of the year.

Firms that had not become paperless by March 2020 faced serious challenges. They continued to have high numbers of staff in the office thus increasing health risks. The COVID-19 situation forced them into ‘modern legal practice’.

The legal profession still has many dinosaurs who can’t think beyond a paper file and a handwritten file note. The idea of the ‘girl’ who would sit at the other side of your desk and take down your every thought in shorthand should just be a weird memory.

It is very difficult to implement technological work practices that senior partners are not open to adopting themselves. Leadership requires senior practitioners to learn new tricks! As I am now squarely in that category, I have to keep reminding myself to adapt or perish.

The bar has also adapted at an enormous rate. Counsel who had previously avoided online briefs came on board.

Old-fashioned court registries suddenly discovered that online filing was not too hard after all.

The excellent series of articles in this edition touch on many aspects of our brave new world, alongside some regrets for times past.

For example, the days when judges weren’t overwhelmed by huge amounts of written material and instead, each document was individually tendered in a logical order during the course of the trial.

Or the days when litigators and advocates actually went to court and ran cases rather than becoming experts in mediations. The world of the disappearing trial?

In this edition you will find eight keys to happiness, which are really worth contemplating. I only had three before – something to do, someone to love and something to look forward to – but I am going to aim for the full eight in future.

And don’t miss the lovely tips on how to become more technologically adept.

For those of you who relied on charisma and leadership to get on, have you lost the edge in the ‘work-from-home’ environment? Is now the time for introverts to rule?

In the midst of the trauma of all this change, look for the articles on improving mental health and don’t forget that lawyers are particularly vulnerable, given that we tend to suffer vicarious trauma from our clients’ problems. Just ask those who deal with abuse cases.

The issue of how much our public duty should be weighed against business outcomes is another perpetual chestnut. One can opine that going broke and shutting up shop is not good for anyone, but a sense of balance is not only desirable but possible if one gives sufficient thought to the ethical constraints of being a legal practitioner.

And with respect to Practical Legal Training courses, how much can new graduates be taught without actually doing? Equipping young practitioners is a difficult task, particularly when it is likely that most will end up working in specialist fields, unlike the olden days when small suburban and regional practices were the norm.

My own firm has used this time to plan and implement a major renovation. We are fortunate not to have done it pre-COVID-19, as we have been able to ask for workstations designed with social distancing and shielding in mind. The upside will be more privacy and noise protection for those extremely valuable legal assistants and paralegals who aren’t sufficiently high in the food chain to have their own offices.

It also means that when parts of the office are being renovated, it is very easy to ask affected staff to temporarily work from home.

As I write this, our staff have all returned to the office, the ACT having been free of COVID-19 for many weeks, but our colleagues in Victoria are still doing it tough, and no one knows what the future holds.

The articles in this edition will be of great assistance in developing and growing our practices in these interesting times.

Noor Blumer is a Director at Blumers Personal Injury Lawyers. PHONE [phone] EMAIL [e-mail].