Finding the words to explain something basic

For those who don't know, I've been a developer longer than I've been a lawyer, and I did that thinking that it would make me a lawyer who understands tech (I am). Really, though, it's been a love affair with reducing the practice of law into code.

I've constantly tried to reinvent the practice of law in my own practice. From offering subscription services, to providing community workshops, to providing courses for people trying to solve their legal issues. Central to my efforts, though, has been tech integrations.

I've had this vision for years, before I became a programmer even, that the practice of law would be about managing technical solutions with expertise and delivering client-centric results effectively. So far, it's been primarily one foot in the legal camp and another in the tech camp, but I've had an epiphany. It's not two separate disciplines interacting with each other: it's one.

I'm struggling to boil the idea down into a few words that capture the whole concept. I've settled on "lawyer in the loop," but other candidates included "technical lawyer" and "lawyer of the future." Since this is not a prevalent concept in the industry, I'm working through the words to make it simple in a series of posts.

The short version is, the practice of law is technology first. It's not having all of the right tech tools, like email, research databases, or contract management software. It's also not having a tech or IT team member manage various solutions for you. Nor is it building a single system on which you can deliver a set-it-and-forget-it suite of legal services. Instead, it's about integrating your logic as a lawyer into processes based on the needs of a given case, client, or matter type.

Perfection is the goal, but not the destination here. We are encoding our own processes into tech systems to ensure they hold up to our own standards. We review the outcomes, then we adjust as necessary such that the next run through the process is better.

This is a concept I'll be exploring (with the help of a lawyer-in-the-loop tool) over a series of posts. I think this is the key to value-based billing and measurable benefits to our clients, and I'm excited to see if it holds water.