The legal profession that Professor Richard Susskind OBE has been observing since 1981 is ‘on the brink of fundamental change’. He predicts that the practice of commercial law in particular, will be almost unrecognisable in 15 years from what it is today. Inevitably, in-house counsel teams are not immune. But with change comes opportunity and, according to Susskind, the importance of the in-house counsel role in the future will be very much self-driven and self-determined. In the following extract from his new book, Tomorrow’s Lawyers, chapter 7 ‘The shifting role of in-house lawyers’ – published by Oxford University Press, exclusive to ASIAN-MENA COUNSEL – Susskind illustrates how in-house counsel need to change their way of working and provides examples as to how they can adapt and profit from this shifting landscape.
