The term “law new” has become a catchall for describing legal industry change. It’s been linked to such concepts as “legal tech,” “legal ops,” and “ALSP’s.” But law new is not about those things at all; it’s about the way we do legal.

It’s about a transformation to more resemble the business customers and societies we serve. That’s a multidimensional journey that involves leveraging business processes, technology and multiple non-lawyer disciplines to produce scalable, accessible, affordable, on-demand legal products. And it’s about a mindset shift that moves the industry away from a fee-based model that rewards lawyers based on their billable hours and toward a value-driven model that rewards them for client impact.

There’s nothing wrong with embracing technology, but it must not be an end in itself for “legal techies.” Instead, fit-for-purpose technologies should be an element of a legal delivery plan that is reverse-engineered from the customer/end-user perspective. And it should be part of a wider collaborative process that includes legal practitioners, allied professionals, process/project managers and data analysts.

It will also require that a comprehensive legal strategy include a clear understanding of the business goals, risks and opportunities at each level of operations. This approach will be critical to driving significant financial savings, avoiding the significant lost opportunity costs of protracted disputes, freeing up management time to focus on core objectives and produce better-informed risk assessment and business decisions. And it will also allow the legal function and its cross-functional enterprise colleagues to take a more proactive role in identifying, eradicating, mitigating, and extinguishing risk as well as creating, capturing and exploiting new business opportunities.

A new law has been approved that would force companies to include salary ranges in job postings. Supporters of the law say it will help close the pay gap for women, but critics argue that it doesn’t go far enough.

Congress

Have you ever wondered how a bill becomes a law? Watch this video to learn more about the legislative process in the House and Senate. A bill can be introduced by a representative or senator to either chamber, and it will then be assigned to a committee where members will research it, discuss it, make changes and vote on it. Once a bill has passed one of the houses, it will be sent to the governor who can approve it or veto it. A veto will be returned to the legislator who proposed the bill along with a statement explaining why it was not acceptable to the governor.