On the 25th of January 2020, South African Black Women in Law (SABWiL) in collaboration with the Student Litigation Society (SLS) hosted a seminar on the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) and its impact on Evidence in the Law. Forensic IT practitioner and SABWiL Luminary Kimlynne Olivier shared her expertise on the topic, highlighting the growing technological developments and trends in the space of evidence and the law.
Most interesting was the evolving nature of legal technologies, with Luminary Kimlynne providing a comparison of past, present and future trends. Traditionally, areas of legal practice and services affected by technological development include document automation; case and practice management tools; billing and accounting, document storage and legal research to name a few.
Currently, there appears to be a rise in the design of technologies which seek to provide more efficient legal services to clients. These include developing marketplace tools to help connect clients with lawyers; helping consumers and businesses begin and conclude legal matters without the intervention of a lawyer; automation of legal writing and documentation; data and contract analytics and digital signatures. All of which, many legal practitioners in the industry are already encountering in their day to day work.
Projecting to the future, Luminary Kimlynne highlights technologies which are likely to disrupt our current legal services landscape, including: Block chain and Crypto currency; DIY e-Discovery (which is already available on Microsoft Office 365);online mediation and reconciliation; virtual courtrooms (also already taking place in some, In Camera Court sessions) and Technology Assisted Review of (TAR) of legal process.
In conclusion of her seminar, Luminary Kimlynne made a salient point which made an impression on me: “Future-proof your profession as an attorney”. She emphasized the importance of ensuring that at every stage in our career journey, we are updated on developments in technology in the legal profession and adjusting our skills accordingly. Ours is to ensure that we leverage technological development to our advantage whilst offering the best services to clients and the marketplace generally.
In addition to the technological ‘future proofing ‘raised by Luminary Kimlynne, I reflected on a couple of other ways we as aspiring and already practicing attorneys can future proof ourselves in the legal industry. Many of these points focus on the softer, interpersonal skills and traits, most of which I have picked up on my short journey in the legal industry.
These are some of lessons I have gathered from personal experiences, in no particular order:
1. The path to your personal success is not necessarily linear. Something I learnt from a talk given by Executive Business Coach and seasoned businesswoman – Ms. India Gary-Martin. Embrace your journey. Focus on your lane and flourish where you currently find yourself.
2. Never stop learning. Be teachable. A lot of us attorneys feel like we need to know it all or at least to know it all. It’s okay to admit that you aren’t sure about something yet making a point of researching further on it. It makes you a more credible professional for it.
3. Challenging times (and bosses, managers, co-workers etc.) make for resilient professionals and leaders. Each difficult encounter is an opportunity to mature and adds a layer onto your character. Pay attention to the lesson at hand.
4. The small, repetitive and seemingly mundane tasks are just as important as the big ones. Again, these are tests of character. They also help develop your skill set as a professional. You know the old cliché, ‘Practice makes perfect’? A quote from a LinkedIn post I saw a month ago said: ‘You will be paid in future, for the small tasks you are learning to do very well now.’
5. Know your value and what it is you bring to the table. And if you don’t know, make a point of finding it out for yourself. Don’t sell yourself short.
6. Don’t get too comfortable. Make sure you are always growing. Always challenged. That may mean exploring areas of law and practice that are out of your scope. Studying further or even getting closer to people who challenge what you (think you) already know.
7. Be humble – there is always someone better than you and someone worse off than you are in the space. Experience has taught me that you can always learn a thing or two from both types of people.
8. Formulate healthy habits. Our habits and not always our skills and talents, can become the make or break of our professional growth. Habits will also impact on our personal development as human beings. Focus also on developing healthy social habits like treating everyone you encounter (from the cleaner to the CEO) with the dignity and respect they deserve as a fellow human being.
9. Chase purpose in your work. Know your “why”. Interrogate why you choose to do what you do. “… instead ask yourself what you care deeply about. By focusing on purpose, you align your work with your deepest values and relieve yourself of the expectation that the long slog of a career will be all (or even mostly) happiness and sunshine” – Jessica Stillman. Purpose makes us resilient.
10. Learn to affirm and encourage yourself. We are often hardest on ourselves and forget that we, too, are on a journey. Don’t wait for someone else to call it out. Be your own biggest cheerleader.
11. Find a professional mentor /coach with whom you feel most comfortable to walk through your professional growth. Someone who has gone before you and inspired you. Someone who will hold you accountable to your goals.
I am still on the journey of learning. Learning myself, unravelling my ‘why’ and discovering more and more of the potential for making positive impacts in the space of the law.
About the Authoress: Thabang Mokgatle is an admitted Attorney of the High Court of South Africa and a SABWiL Alumna. She graduated from Rhodes University with a BA and LLB. She is currently pursuing her LLM through the School of Law at the University of the Witwatersrand. She has a passion for Justice and for the communities of South Africa and Africa at large. She hopes to become a change agent in her own right.