Partner – Taylor Wessing, Poland
1. How has the Covid-19 crisis affected the way you work as a lawyer? What are the key positives and negatives that have emerged out of lockdown?
Well, I work much more from home in home-office / online mode and not in the office. Meetings with the clients as well as the internal team meetings are almost only online, on platforms such as webex or teams. There are almost no face to face meetings, no negotiations. The key positives – agile working, flexible time management. The key negatives – no face to face meetings, negotiations, discussions, exchange of ideas, no BD interactions, long working hours in front of the computer but … at home not in the office.
2. Will you and your firm/company continue to use flexible and agile working in the future? Will you reduce the size of your physical office space?
Yes in my opinion we will use this working flexibility in the future, however I do not think that this will result in a reduction of physical office space. The times of the great “corner offices” are, as it seems to me, a thing of the past. Today “my office is my laptop” and it must be absolutely great and reliable. The physical office must be well connected, and easily accessible and … comfortable.
3. How have you employed legal tech during the crisis? What has been successful and what has been lacking?
We have had to supplement hardware and software, we had to learn how to use virtual rooms, platforms and how to participate in online meetings, how to participate in webinars both as speakers and participants. Being able to participate in international conferences and discussions was successful. The visual capacity and internet bandwidth were sometimes compromised.
4. How do you see the advancement of legal tech affecting the legal industry in the next 10 years?
This will have a big impact, legal tech will change the industry not necessarily for the better but definitely for a completely different one. The law itself will be formulated differently, the legislative process will change, the judiciary will not need so many lawyers, the processes will be automated by court algorithms.
5. Has your firm/company changed its remuneration structure during the crisis? Will the firm/company consider using a “Keystone” fee-sharing or hybrid remuneration model in future?
No, we are doing well so far.
6. Name one key thing that will be different in the legal profession in 10 years time.
Artificial intelligence and generally the technology will definitely change the legal profession.