Changing Attitudes: Changing Scripts and a Coming of Age

Come March 2000, I face, like you, the litigator, the advent of Phase 1.2 of the Electronic Filing System; all writs of summons will have to be filed electronically, rendering the filing system paperless for our courts.

I welcome the change — though not without some reservations, costs being one single factor, training another.

I recognise

• that the face of legal practice is an ever-changing one;

• the potential of information technology;

• e-mail and its valuable inputs (although admittedly paper trails in this form can leave much to be desired); and

• the possibility of a virtual courtroom — paperless they say (but hopefully not yet peopleless).

But there is a time-frame to achieve this — the quicker we do it, the quicker we remain competitive with the developed practices of the Western world, and Japan.

Staying alive with the Internet is not only the in-thing but also the next logical step as it revolutionises the ways in which we have traditionally practised law.

Law will become internationalised. Clients will demand shorter deadlines.

Pro tanto, we need to get up fast, and soon enough, there shall arise a new generation of lawyers; right now, we are in transition, and some of us feel reluctant to change.

But change we must in the fast and rapid-moving world as otherwise we shall — as I said in my ‘Opening of the Legal Year’ address — be stagnant.

The Times of London, in its 19 January 2000 issue, calls for ‘A Revolution in Attitude’.

Lawyers’ own self-interest may be a thing of the past. EFS marks a genesis of what is going to be the present and the future of practice.

In today’s legal market, a business card without an e-mail address is viewed like a business card without a fax number some five years ago. Websites are falling into the same category.

This gives added value to your service to clients.

As we move forward into the next century, virtual offices will be more common with practitioners working from home or on an aircraft or on the road with that amount of cases and access to information and resources of the firm.

Your work habits will change this 21st Century, and the challenges to meet this electronic-tagging is a will to meet the demands of the environment, even if you are forced to learn on the job. This indeed is a revolution to your attitude — or else you may just be a dinosaur, facing extinction.

Our mental attitude, not our aptitude, will decide our relevance in the rapidly changing world around us.

Like a novice diver standing at an ocean’s edge before a dive, one can balk in dread at the seemingly endless depths of swirling dark water below; or one can eagerly look forward to exploring the unknown world beneath its waves.

As a senior practitioner, I was, until recently, unversed and averse to personally tinkering with the likes of a computer. Late last year, I decided to take the plunge.

Crossing that mental barrier was the first step to a whole new world of cyber -explorations. I marvel at the convenience of instantaneous electronic communication and the boundless knowledge and information that can be accessed via the Net.

I am confident that with the right attitude, time and training, lawyers of all ages will see the value in becoming IT-savvy and adapt to the changes posed by this Cyber Age.

I have accepted that challenge — so can you. I have now embraced that richness that knowledge inevitably brings about.

Palakrishnan
President
The Law Society of Singapore