A number of legal commentators and practitioners have described a definitive shift in the legal industry. Specifically, how legal technology and innovation is paving the way for a new age of law. And more importantly, how a shift from a lawyer-centred framework to a customer-centric marketplace is a result of changes in how clients want to “buy” the law.
This shift signals a new way of doing law, a new approach that is now termed NewLaw or Alternative Legal Services. The first element in the shifting legal landscape is the disruptive nature of legal technology and innovation. During the recent Innovation and Tech Fest, participants in the South African alternative legal services sphere described how legal tech has, for many years been considered both a threat and an enhancement to the legal profession.
The United States was facing a housing crisis long before the COVID-19 pandemic one driven by high rental costs, a shrinking availability of quality housing, wage stagnation that has particularly challenged renter households and racial inequities embedded within the housing system. With evictions as one outcome of this crisis, pre-pandemic statistics estimate that one out of every 20 renters face an eviction each year, with the rate for Black renters more dire at one out of every 11 households. The long-lasting and damaging effects of eviction, and its disproportionate impact on low-income Black, Latinx, and Asian households, have only been exacerbated by the economic slowdown, surge in unemployment and health crisis resulting from the current pandemic.