The future is now. We all face a battle to remain relevant and change must be embraced. Law firms and lawyers who are agile of thought and action will continue to prosper. The days of a discrete brass plaque as the only calling card for business are gone. The internet is your new shop front, and it’s open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day as customers look for and assess you. Even normal routes to business, such as referrals from friends, will be impacted by the internet. No matter the recommendation, it will become the norm to assess a business online before engaging them. If you aren’t talking to them in a way that they value online, you may one day be pulling down the shutters for the final time.

The internet is revolutionising every aspect of our lives – and the pace of change will continue to increase. All of society is feeling the impact, and the legal landscape isn’t immune. The internet is changing how lawyers work, communicate, win business and retain business. In 2017, how can lawyers and law firms remain relevant to their audience, an audience almost permanently connected to the internet? The pace of change is so rapid that it can be easy to think that things have always been as they are now – we are used to relentless technological change but it wasn’t always this way.

It’s fair to say that most law firms have not warmly welcomed the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s plans to overhaul the route to qualification. Many feared that the new Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) was an unnecessary alternative to the gold-plated standard of the legal practice course and a ‘dumbed down’ alternative at that. They worried that the changes would restrict the pool of talented graduates entering the legal profession and enormously complicate recruitment. Despite these fears, however, there are some grounds for optimism.

Back in November, a survey showed that more than half of claimant personal injury (PI) law firms would be forced to shut down or look for other work if the government’s proposed reforms go through. Since then, the reforms were dropped, before being put back on the agenda after the election as part of the new Civil Liability Bill. The uncertainty surrounding this contentious issue has meant that, understandably, many firms operating within the PI sector are nervous about the future. The natural reaction from many has been to reduce spending across all areas of the firm to ensure reserves are significant enough to ride out the storm when it hits. But is this simply accepting defeat?

Once upon a time it was enough to know how to use a computer, then it was enough to know how to use a computer and the internet. But now, according to the vision of HM Courts and Tribunals Service and the Ministry of Justice, we also have to know how to use technology in order to solve our own legal problems and to go to court. What distinguishes current endeavors to digitize the courts and justice, from previous modernisation attempts during the Tony Blair years, is the adoption of a digital by default strategy. This is the same strategy that led to a mandatory telephone gateway for legal aid – an initiative that has resulted in fewer calls to the service.