What Makes Law New?
Law new is a burgeoning field that all lawyers need to be open to and aware of. It involves developing strategies that go beyond efficiency to drive impact and client satisfaction. It includes embracing collaboration, working with underserved populations and offering services in ways that have never been seen before.
What makes something new law is that it shifts the industry from provider-centric to customer-centric. It changes the way the industry serves legal consumers and society-at-large. It focuses on customer impact and high NPS scores, not on self-congratulatory awards or profit preservation.
It is a process that takes place over years and can be driven by internal forces or external ones such as market forces, technology and innovation, or regulatory change. This paradigm change requires leadership, culture and a willingness to be agile and move quickly with a changing business landscape. It can also be sparked by social or political events that cause the industry to reassess its values and ethics.
A new law is a proposed policy or statute that is introduced into one of the two houses of Congress—the House of Representatives and the Senate. When a bill is passed in both houses, it becomes a law. The process to create a law starts with the introduction of the bill by a representative or senator, then goes through the research, discussion, amendment and voting processes in both chambers.
New laws have a wide range of effects on the world. They can be a means to accomplish social or environmental goals, such as reducing inequality, combating climate change or promoting gender equality. They can also be a means to achieve economic goals, such as reducing the cost of doing business or improving transparency.
Laws can be created by a government, an organization or an individual. Some types of laws are called constitutional laws and must be abided by by all citizens. Other laws are created by legislatures, such as federal and state laws. Laws can be made for specific purposes, such as limiting or prohibiting certain activities.
For example, a new law may be made to reduce the amount of water used in irrigation or limit the number of animals slaughtered for food. Some laws are based on the principles of natural law, like the Ten Commandments or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Others, such as the law of supply and demand, are based on economics.
In the legal industry, “new law” has been used as a catchall term for describing a variety of initiatives that are driving change, including legal tech, legal ops, ALSP’s and legal innovation. But it can be difficult to determine if a project or initiative qualifies as new law because the term is so broad. This is a problem because it can dilute the importance of these efforts and lead to ineffective or confusing implementations. Ultimately, the only true measure of success is whether or not they produce real, impactful changes to legal consumer and industry delivery.