Unless you are a law firm founder or an avid consumer of legal services, you have probably never heard the term “law new.” It is fresh icing on the stale cake of legal industry paradigms. It is not a new delivery model but an innovative approach to delivering legal services and solving business problems in more cost effective, agile, and customer-centric ways.

It will refocus legal providers on customer impact that produces high net promoter scores rather than on preserving legacy delivery models that perpetuate outdated legal education, self-congratulatory awards and conflict resolution mechanisms that generate little value to consumers or businesses outside the legal industry. It will integrate the legal supply chain, erasing artificial, lawyer-created distinctions between provider sources and enable agile, fluid and on-demand resources with verifiable, material expertise and experience to be sourced and engaged at the point of need. It will leverage technology platforms to deliver cost takeout and meet demanding business needs with speed and efficiency. It will be backed by purpose-driven customer data and a tech-enabled, outcome-driven model that prioritizes output over input.

The most important part of the “law new” discussion is that it will not be shaped by a single technology vendor or legal-savvy “legal techie.” Fit for purpose technology will be an element in a holistic, strategic plan that solves a critical challenge. It will be a team sport that includes lawyers, “legal techies,” process/project managers, technologists and other allied professionals. It will be an iterative, customer-centric design and delivery approach that is reverse-engineered from the end-user perspective and focuses on legal/business/societal outcomes.

New laws and rules enacted in 2022

This bill would require City agencies that have suffered a breach of their private identifying information to disclose it to affected persons. It also makes changes to laws related to open captioning in movie theaters and automated employment decision tools.

This is an omnibus bill that includes the following laws and rules: