What are the challenges of digital transformation in corporate law?

Last week I had the opportunity to visit Lima, Peru, invited by the visionary and professional team of ESAN Graduate Business School. The tenor of the visit included participation as an exhibitor in the international seminar "Digital Transformation of Corporate Law".

During my stay, I not only had the privilege of sharing with brilliant minds like those of Eddy Morris, Pablo Courtis and Abel Revoredobut also the possibility of talking with some of the world's legal innovation references in Peru, Wilfredo Murillo, of Xstrategia and Gericó Peruand Juan José Hopkins, of Sumara Hub Legalsome of the people who attended the seminar.

After an extraordinary presentation by Abel on the challenges facing law and standards in the face of the digital context we are living today, and a masterful talk given by Eddy on the route to be followed in the digital transformation of business, I had to present myself about the impacts of digital reality on the development of business models for the provision of legal services.

The truth is that with an extremely interested audience and starting my exhibition beyond 9: 00 at night, when I had never thought anyone would take attention, I was exposed to a public who listened carefully to the experiences we have experienced in Alster, the opportunities we have identified in a market still reticent to change and learning of almost 4 years of journey on the path of legal innovation in Latin America from which we have been referred.

They are data known to all, but to deepen the discussion of the current conditions of the Latin American legal market always allows us to understand our vision. The increase in the number of lawyers who go out on the streets every day, the pressures for costs, much more empowered and informed customers, greater competition and the appetite of the Big4 for a market share; as well as the famous millennials and coming generations, connection, globalization, automation, among other conditions in the environment; make it clear and imperative that those who intend to perpetuate themselves as relevant actors in the legal market, must act and address these conditions as opportunities.

The look from the comfort zone is a latent risk and, although skeptics will always deny the changes, the facts speak for themselves. Who determines the price of the service today, customers or service providers? Do customers ask for immediate transparency, certainty, access and flexibility to their legal service providers? Has the client started bidding services? Has the customer started to require that the value proposal be not only that of having a given expert, but also that of including aspects such as diversity, inclusion, risk, technology and others? I think that if we are sensible, we know the answers clearly.

Reinventing, adapting and innovating are requirements of current legal leadership. What do you need for it? Well, precisely one of the most interesting questions that I was asked at the end of the seminar was that, why and how, as a lawyer, I could know about technology and strategy...... There lies, I believe, the great and main conceptual error of how we approach the legal profession: We have been educated thinking that it is atypical to think of a lawyer talking about business and, even less, innovation. That is why the leaders of change in the legal industry must have appropriate technical tools to deal with this reality.. We were not trained and less so were our mentors to face the digital age and the fourth industrial revolution. From Darwin to Drucker have always said, to adapt to survive is essential and it is the species that adapts that transcends.

The invitation is to open the mind, to cast away stereotypes and to take care of finding opportunities in a scrambled river where I'm sure there are many fish.

Andrés Jara, CEO Alster Legal.