This in an origin story of how Fully Automated Luxury Lawyering was conceived.

Ever since I prepared a research library for a brief for my talented and extraordinary sister in her litigation law firm, I knew that law was for me. The logic and process of it all. It just made sense. It is justice; part of the fabric of our civilisation.

“Law” meant something when someone would ask, “what are you studying at uni?” It was impressive, ambitious, and slightly intimidating. Whilst law school was challenging, it was deeply rewarding, and doe-eyed Chantal entered the legal profession excited and hopeful.

As I found in my abject horror, the practice of law is a world removed from university. The profession and business of it all, removed again.

Fast forward to the last few years, I’ve had the immense honour of meeting thousands of lawyers in their dual capacity as members of the legal profession and entrepreneurs. The duality, it seems, causes extreme discomfort for the private lawyer. They must provide legal services diligently, competently, within deadlines and be officers of the courts and administrators of justice. The private lawyer must also bill enough for the firm, otherwise they run the risk of performance management. It is not enough to be a good lawyer, you must also bill well.

Yet, the billing well bit strikes me as a “necessity but lesser” value of the legal profession. Sure, in the Stepping Up Course (also known as Practice Management), lawyers training to be partners or strike out on their own are given some guidance on business planning. But a short course is not business training. In meeting many partners and principals, it’s clear that the hard bit is not the professionalism – that stuff is ingrained at law school. The hard stuff is the business side of the law.

This is what has motivated me to my area of expertise and research: the tension between law as a profession and law as a business.

From the Other Side

My experience with the relationship of law and business was reverse to the convention. This is on-brand for me.

To make ends meet at law school, I had three jobs (at one stage), and tutored. The process of earning a living was more than just to live, however. I enjoyed finding ever more effective ways to sell and deliver on whatever it was that I did.

When I walked out of my first graduate job, I found myself in this position again. Using the connections I had made through law school, I had a consultancy business providing documentation packages and services to Australian Credit Licensees. Given my training, I was terrified of accidentally providing legal advice or services, and falling foul of the law. I still had dreams of being a lawyer.

I knew that I was treading a thin line and not even well-resourced legal advice could definitively say what I was doing was outside the legal profession’s regulated market. Whilst my resolve to build my (successful) business packed it in, I never forgot how it felt to not know whether what I was doing was legal practice or not.

With this lived experience, I have compassion for how it must feel to know the inside and out of lawyering but struggle with the daily affairs of running a profitable law firm business.

But Why Fully Automated Luxury Lawyering?

In late 2022, I read Fully Automated Luxury Communism by Aaron Bastani (you can read it here for free, thanks to the University of Melbourne). Not only did it have a catchy title, but it was also about how human ingenuity coupled with technology against the pressures of free-market economics can greatly improve our way of life. It is possible to see beyond the rat race.

Importantly, my takeaway from the book isn’t to fight against how free-market capitalism works. It’s to celebrate how it gives us the opportunity to break free from labour-intense production.

There are clear connections that can be transcribed from Fully Automated Luxury Communism‘s technology-enabled future for everyone to Fully Automated Luxury Lawyering for the lawyers (and their clients).

I want to deliver that realisation to all the lawyers out there struggling as I did. There is a bright future of possibility, where lawyering can shirk off the tediousness and labour-intensive propensity to do it that way for the sake of tradition. To fully commit to effective business practices whilst maintaining the strict professionalism that society expects of one of the noble professions.

On a final note, Fully Automated Luxury Lawyering is not about commodifying or McDonaldising the profession. There is enough of that already. This is about seeking a meaningful career to deliver quality legal services to the maximum number in our society whilst heeding to the duty to the court. If this sounds like you and you want to join in on this conversation, send me a message on LinkedIn and I will add you to the LinkedIn Group.