Skip to main content

Impact of COVID – 19 on Legal Industry


Impact of COVID – 19 on Legal Industry

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has changed the world. As I write this, I have been living in a lockdown for more than 45 days. The work, as usual, has changed and so is the normal way of conducting business. While nobody knows the exact extent of the impact of COVID- 19 across industries but the general sense is that it is bad. The world as I see has been divided into two ages one is Before COVID-19 (BC) and another is After COVID-19 (AC).
However, there is a silver lining, at least for the legal industry. The worst has become the touchstone of a revolution long resisted by the wisdom of convention and it will impact the legal industry in a long way. This change will be based on three questions.
Why?
The COVID -19 scare has got everyone locked up in his or her house. The legal business, as usual, has been severely affected. The courtrooms are deserted, the majority of cases being adjourned, clients and lawyers have been severely impacted, and resultantly a considerable number of litigation lawyers are living on their savings. However, even when the lockdown goes,  and in the absence of any vaccination, the courts being crowded place will remain an ideal setting for everything except social distancing. Similarily, the activities of networking, meeting clients and colleagues, case conferences, and arbitration proceedings everything is on a stand-still and cannot run as usual post lockdown. This has resulted in a severe financial concern for the legal fraternity and a delivery issue for the clients and litigants as the required or expected legal services are not being delivered.
Another dimension to this issue is the severe economic shock that has arrived along with COVID-19. Although, the world was looking at a global recession for some time but the accelerator in COVID-19 has truly made things beyond reasonable imagination. With news of layoffs, and unpaid leaves coming in every day from across the globe, unemployment rates already aiming for the sky,  the paying capacity of the clients has been severely impacted and is calling for the rules of the game to change.
What?
With ‘Social Distancing’ coming off as a new normal for our life until the near future, maintaining ‘Social Distancing’ will be a critical aspect of the legal industry as well.  The long resisted digitalization will see a boom in the legal industry. Adopting new modes of communication and conducting business which has been a necessity for a very long time has become indispensable now. Be it courtrooms, tribunals, or client conferences, everything will have to adopt the technology.
While the consultancy business was already transitioning to digital platforms, now virtual meetings and video conferences will become part of the majority of practitioners’ office conduct.  But a very drastic change would have to be adopted by the judicial system as courtrooms now feel unsafe to everyone from judges, lawyers to litigants.
With the paying capacity of clients changing, the legal services have to become efficient. The client, be it an individual or an MNC, will expect value for money from legal services. They might look towards smart and efficient players who are willing to accept the change early and provide services with some level of client experience much like other industries.
How?
While premium services still exist in the market, now is the time for a revolution of the scale of what WhatsApp video calls brought in for a regular person. Not every lawyer is tech-literate so affordable and simplified virtual services platform customized for the legal industry would be required. Such platforms have to work efficiently for a lawyer as well as clients.
Similarly, the courtrooms have to be brought online by setting up an integrated and organized system of virtual hearing and case filing, wherein lawyers can do everything from filing the case, etc. to arguing virtually before the bench and clients can participate in legal proceedings from their offices and/or homes. This way, the business of litigation can continue in a very efficient manner. Although, their would-be some technical and ethical issues to it which I will try to address in my next write-ups.
Whatever maybe the case, the legal industry AC will be different from what it was in BC.






Labels:

Comments

Post a comment

Popular posts from this blog

Whether Cryptocurrency is legal in India

India’s cryptocurrency trading volumes have been on the rise. While there are no official figures, as  per experts there are at least five million active traders in India, transacting via regulated banking channels. With India’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges such as Zebpay, Unocoin, Coinsecure, Coinome and Bitxoxo among others reporting a marked increase in user interest every day the question is gaining lot of momentum if the cryptocurrency is legal in India or not. The situation further becomes complex with the global situation with respect to it. While China has blocked crypto exchanges, U.S. banks are steadily declining cryptocurrency purchases. Meanwhile, Indian finance minister Arun Jaitley, during the national finance budget, stated that the country does not recognize Bitcoin as legal tender and steps would be taken to penalize crypto payments. What  are the official communications and stand of RBI ( Reserve Bank of India) on Cryptocurrency As on date no specif
Post a comment
Read more

Importance of Section 202 Of the Indian Contract Act

Section 202 in The Indian Contract Act, 1872 202. Termination of agency, where agent has an interest in subject-matter.—Where the agent has himself an interest in the property which forms the subject-matter of the agency, the agency cannot, in the absence of an express contract, be terminated to the prejudice of such interest. —Where the agent has himself an interest in the property which forms the subject-matter of the agency, the agency cannot, in the absence of an express contract, be terminated to the prejudice of such interest." Illustrations (a)  A gives authority to B to sell A’s land, and to pay himself, out of the proceeds, the debts due to him from A. A cannot revoke this authority, nor can it be terminated by his insanity or death. (a) A gives authority to B to sell A’s land, and to pay himself, out of the proceeds, the debts due to him from A. A cannot revoke this authority, nor can it be terminated by his insanity or death." (b)  A consigns 1,000 bales of
Post a comment
Read more

Signing an NDA !

The moment you wish to pursue a serious business relationship you are requested to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement more commonly known as an ‘NDA’. It is  also known as a confidentiality agreement (CA), confidential disclosure agreement (CDA), proprietary information agreement (PIA), or secrecy agreement (SA) . In fact it is one of the most common pieces of document that you may come across in your business transactions.  Be it as an employee, an investor, a start-up founder, or a professional an NDA is the starting point of sharing substantial information in a business relation. In today’s world of complex transactions it becomes all more important to keep a tab on the rights you hold over the information that you share. With the advent of superior analytics and technology data has become the new gold and so is the value and liability with respect to it. Most common kind of information that people intend to secure in any such NDA is the client or customer data etc. What is
Post a comment
Read more