Duty of Competence is the first rule stipulated by the American Bar association (ABA) and the 7th Core Duty set out by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) for the UK (derived from the Legal Services Act 2007). What we can understand from this is that the importance of the responsibility for practising legal professionals to maintain adequate knowledge of current and emerging technology and practices cannot be overstated. 

ABA Rule 1.1 - A lawyer shall provide competent representation to a client. Competent representation requires the legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation.

BSB Handbook - Pt.2 Code of Conduct - gC39 - In order to be able to provide a competent standard of work, you should keep your professional knowledge and skills up to date, regularly take part in professional development and educational activities that maintain and further develop your competence and performance...

With this in mind, and following on from the theme of our blog post about the Metaverse and how advancements in technology are set to challenge the industry as a whole, we thought we would take a deeper dive into how the people working within the industry are like to be affected by the rapidly expanding legal technology landscape. 

It is no secret that the legal industry is notoriously 'stuck in its ways' with legal professionals being some of the most reluctant when it comes to the adoption of new technology. This is understandable, we are working with highly sensitive data in high-stress environments. We can't afford for anything to go wrong. However, just because you don't currently use the software everyone's talking about, or haven't adopted the latest practices, doesn't mean you don't have to know about them.