KEYNOTE ADDRESS: The Legal Profession in the Year 2024
William Henderson - Professor of Law and Val Nolan Faculty Fellow,
Indiana University Mauer School of Law; Founder of the Legal Whiteboard Blog
Bill Gates once said, "We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten." If we rewind the clock to the early 2000s, when the country was beginning to recover from the 9/11 attacks and the bursting of the dot.com bubble, it would have been difficult to imagine that law firm entry-level hiring would decline more than 50 percent over the next decade. Similarly, we would not have predicted the emergence of a new category of entry-level legal employment called JD-Advantaged, which relies on the knowledge and skills acquired in law school but not the formal licensure. Where is the legal profession, and the broader legal industry, headed over the next 10 years? This session offers some data and examples on industry trends and how younger and older lawyers are likely to adapt. It will also highlight the challenges and opportunities this new environment creates for the self-regulated legal profession.
