THE CHANGING FACE OF LAW (Part 3)
By: Charles Ajiboye, FICMC
The lawyer that will lead in the future of law, will be the lawyer that understands the future. We will need lawyers who can write codes. Who understand different languages. Not languages like English and French but Python, C Sharp, SQL, PHP, Ruby, C++ e.t.c. Lawyers that write codes will be the ones to design smart contracts. They will be in demand because they will be better suited to write the clauses in codes.
Executive Partner, The Penthouse Law, Charles Ajiboye, FICMC
They will build the legal technologies that will replace the work of lawyers as we know it. They will be the pioneers of our time. They will build the law firms that will top the pack. Little wonder that more than half of the world 10 largest companies are tech driven.
A lawyer who is averse to technology will have problems. Those who can’t write codes, should at least understand its operations and functionalities. There will be need to draft the laws that will govern the new way humans live. Robots will infringe on privacy of humans and liability will not suffice at being just vicarious. Even where it will be expected to be vicarious, identifying and arresting the Principal may become as herculean as finding and arresting an offender in another country.
What happens where the robot acted in excess of the owner’s desire, either by a production error or a manipulation reasonably beyond the Principals ability to curtail, will this be said to be an act of God? Lawyers will be required to think out these sort of scenerios and draft laws for same.
Space is becoming more interesting too. With the frequency with which men travel out of the planet and the presence of satellites in space by different entities, space law has become a major concern the future law would be required to deal with. With the advent of Geo satellites, mobile phones and internet services, the ordinary person is already interacting with space and this will deepen. Lawyers must take position.
Entertainment has also gone wild, no longer business as usual. People become celebrities overnight now and even their cough may require some kind of legal work to ensure that they are not loosing money from not protecting their interest in their cough. Bespoke agreements are now required to cover the many variations of expressions available in this field.
Businesses too now require lawyers who are business minded. Lawyers who will give business friendly Legal advices. Who will give dispute prevention solutions and receive payment for it, rather than pursue endless unprofitable dispute resolution processes. The truth is that the courts are full, the Jurist are over burdened, there is no likelihood that we will have enough anytime soon. And even if we did, businesses will rather want to be involved in resolving their issues in the ‘DIY’ (Do it yourself) mindset that hang on uncertainties.
Artificial Intelligence is here already. Machines will predict with greater accuracy. The lawyer of the future must, as they say it ‘innovate of die’. The rule of the game will be to innovate, and keep innovating. The idea that law is a conservative profession has been renegotiated of necessity. The principles and values can be maintained, but the modus operandi of practicing law is now different.
With the advent of Internet of Things (IoT), lawyers will also have to be alert. IoT is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers (UIDs) and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. With IoT new kinds of violation of rights will arise and lawyers will have to test the law to grow the law. In addition new laws will be required.
Many will remember the confusion that Uber brought to Nigeria Transport system and the reaction of our agencies and the difficulty of placing their business within existing framework. Can Uber be said to be a transport company? A commercial transport provider? Can the cars be said to be Commercial vehicles in need of that kind of registration? Many of these question cannot be effectively answered except we decide to change of minds. Lawyers need to begin to think ahead and have ready solutions as the future unfolds.
Let us not be quick to think that it is only technology that is changing the way law is being practiced. There’s more to it. Beyond the disruptions, law has changed and will change some more. We will continue with this next week.
Charles Ajiboye, FICMC is a Partner at The Penthouse Law, (www.thepenthouselaw.com) and the Publicity Secretary of Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja. He can be reached via charlesoajiboye@gmail.com
