The Impact of Technology On Business Growth in Africa - The Legal Industry A Test Case

THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON BUSINESS GROWTH IN
AFRICA: THE LEGAL INDUSTRY A TEST CASE
JULY 21, 2017

GOODNEWS DANIEL
The Impact of Technology on Business Growth in Africa: The Legal Industry a Test Case
Contents
ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... 2
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................... 3
THE 21ST CENTURY LEGAL PROFESSION ............................................... 4
The 21st Century Law is Moores Law........................................................... 6
The I-Shaped Lawyer V. The T-Shaped Lawyer ......................................... 8
THE AFRICAN LEGAL MARKET................................................................. 9
Technology and Business Growth in the African Legal Industry............. 14
Legal Technologies Adoption .................................................................... 15
Legal Market Liberalization...................................................................... 25
Social Networking ....................................................................................... 27
Mergers & Acquisitions ............................................................................. 27
Specialization............................................................................................... 28
Softwarization ............................................................................................. 28
CHALLENGES OF THE AFRICAN LEGAL INDUSTRY ........................ 29
CONCLUSION.................................................................................................. 31
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................. 33
pg. 1
THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON BUSINESS GROWTH IN

AFRICA: THE LEGAL INDUSTRY A TEST CASE
Paper presented at:
African Bar Association Annual Conference, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
6th 10th August 2017.
Goodnews Daniel
Lex Computus Labs
24 Azikoro Road,
Yenagoa, Bayelsa State,
Nigeria.
tel. +(234) 810-859-6969
e-mail: goodnewsdaniel101@gmail.com
WORKING PAPER: Not for citation or distribution without permission of the

author.
ABSTRACT
Technology is a major game changer in the 21st - century legal industry. It has so
radically changed the business of law that legal systems, law firms and law
schools around the world are compelled to reappraise, redefine and restructure
their systems, business models and curricula to catch up with its rapid
advancement and exponential growth. The global digital economy, of which the
global legal market is an integral part, is solely software-driven.
Thus, it is impracticable for any legal industry to thrive in this global digital
economy without adopting and leveraging Artificial Intelligence-driven software
technologies for legal education and uber-efficient legal practice. The African
legal industry, however, seems farther from legal-tech literacy and adoption in
contradistinction to their Western counterparts.
How do we find and define our place in the global legal market? How do we
thrive in the global digital economy as an industry? How do we drive growth in
the legal industry in Africa? How do we drive growth in Africa? These are the
questions this paper attempts to answer.
Keywords: Technology, Economy, Business, Growth, Legal Service Market,

Africa, Law, Computer
pg. 2
INTRODUCTION
In recent times, fascinating reports about Africa and her massive economic
potentials and enviable destiny abound. In contradistinction to what obtained in
the last century, the Continent is rapidly becoming the global economic growth
engine, having half of the worlds 25 fastest-growing nations. It is predicted that
the population is set to grow by 50 per cent to 1.5bn by 2030, with a working-age
population rise from the present 500m to 1.1bn by 2040, which is greater than the
combined working-age populations of China and India.1
With a vast Continent of 54 countries with over 1billion of the worlds
population, enveloped in enormous natural resource deposits, Africa effortlessly
offers a wealth of opportunities for both local and international investors. 2 And
as the world continues looking to emerging markets as the drivers for global
economic growth, accounting for the 70% of world growth over the next few
years3, Africa will continually attract the developed world for several rounds of
scramble in the 21st century.
However, as the World Bank rightly observed, for African countries to
empirically taste their latent economic power and inherent prosperity, and
accelerate the pace of their economic progress, they must create the right
conditions to exploit the advantages information-based technology offers to
enhance productivity and competitiveness and learn lessons from successful
growth experiences.4 This is because technology itself has become the global
economic growth engine of the 21st century as it is driving all economies, ranging
from emerging to advanced. Thus, Africas economic progress is, doubtless,
dependent upon wholesale engagement, deployment and exploitation of
technology.
Today, the widespread impact of technology is patently seen and palpably felt in
all spheres of life and vocation. As a unifying factor, and the very language and
tool for globalization, technology spreads its disruptive tentacles across various
industries and sectors of the global economy, radically altering the world order,
1
Lex Mundi, Africa The Great Opportunity, 18 July, 2016, available at https://www.thelawyer.com/issues/11-
july-2016/africa-the-great-opportunity/
Accessed 29/06/2017.
2
Leaders League, African Legal Markets: An Exciting Story in the Making, 27th September, 2016, available at
http://www.leadersleague.com/en/news/african-legal-markets-an-exciting-story-in-the-making. Accessed 12
June, 2017.
3
John Cussons and Nicholas Brush, Into Africa: Opportunities and Risks in the African Legal Market, Ark Group,
2013, available at https://www.ark-group.com/product/africa-opportunities-and-risks-african-legal-
market#.WWeWJDYizIU. Accessed 12 June, 2017.
4
The World Bank, Challenges of African Growth: Opportunities, Constraints and Strategic Directions, 2007
pg. 3
global culture and business. Thus, business is not business as usual anymore.
Business models are changing to conform to the new technology-driven order in
order to avoid obsolescence and/or escape creative destruction5.
Various existing systems are being restructured. Old ideas are being remodelled
and reconfigured to fit into this new context. Industries are recontextualizing6.
Without doubt, the advent of computer technology and telecommunications7, has
systematically transformed the global economy and business world. Indeed,
software technology has eaten up more than 75% of industries in the world.8 This
disruptive invasion has not been otherwise in the legal industry as well, its
perceived technological aversion and conservatism, notwithstanding. The legal
landscape has been revolutionized drastically as both legal education and legal
practice are consistently being detraditionalized through the instrumentality of
software technology, and the legal profession, gradually being disintermediated
through the agency of artificial intelligence-driven applications.
It is therefore the objective of this paper to discuss analytically, the impact of
technology on business growth in Africa, particularly the legal industry, and
design a roadmap for driving growth in the African legal industry through
technology adoption.
THE 21ST CENTURY LEGAL PROFESSION

The legal profession is an age-old profession.9 It is built on ancient norms,
cultures and practices.10 Law itself, and law practice have metamorphosed from
ancient times, through various phases to this present day. Legal historians claim
that law existed even in prehistoric times, which were codes written on metals
and scrolls. Its practice has always travelled a long bloody path from the rule of
5
Kodak and Blackberry are examples of companies that have been creatively destroyed.
6
Its the Authors neologism which connotes redefining a business model, system or ideas to fit into new
technology. Simply put, it means adopting to adapt.
7
Ani Wilson, Angwunta David, Eneje Beatrice & Okwo Mary, How Telecommunications Aid Economic Growth:
Evidence from ITU ICT Development Index (IDI) Top Five Countries for African Region, International Journal of
Business, Economics and Management, 2014, 1 (2): 16-28
8
Andreessen, M., Why Software Is Eating The World, The Wall Street Journal, 2011, available at
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111903480904576512250915629460. Accessed 16 February,
2017.
9
While Legal Historians claim that the oldest extant law code is The Code of Ur-Nammu (circa 2050 BC), which
preceded the Mosaic Code, some still believe that the first law was given by God by word of mouth to the first
man - Adam.
See Goodnews Daniel, What if the Computer Replaces the Lawyer? 2016. pp 21-47
10
Legal principles are mostly capsulized in Latin Maxims, except otherwise presented. Legal traditions have
passed from one generation to the next. For example, why do they wear a collar with two tabs? Duhaime says it
represents the two slabs of stone containing the law God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai for the nation of Israel.
ibid. However, most of these cultures, though ancient and seemingly unalterable, appear to be at the whims and
caprices of Bar Associations around the world.
pg. 4
man to the rule of law.11 There is therefore no gainsaying the fact that the 21st
century law cannot be same as what obtained in the last centuries.
How then is the legal profession in the 21 st century? This question provokes
several others such as: What differentiates the 21 st century from other centuries?
The 19th century had a major revolution - mechanization, that caused creative
destruction12 of most industries, beginning with the textile industry where artisans
and skilled workers of the time were replaced by machines13 in their workplace,
and productivity and efficiency became achievable.
But the 20th century moved a little farther by heralding the advent of computer
technology with the first universally accepted computer - ENIAC, designed
successfully in 1946.14 And through the decades, computer technology, the key
that unlocked the Information Revolution of the 20th century, revolutionized the
world and its industries15, as data could be created, stored, retrieved and
transmitted through computers and computer network, which also gave birth to
the Internet16.
More so, in the later part of the 20th century, computer technology welcomed the
World Wide Web (www)17 and that, together with the Internet, transformed the
11
Most of these are The Code of Ur-Nammu, The Urikaginas Code, The Decalogue, The Code of Hammurabi,
etc.
12
Creative Destruction is a term coined by Joseph Schumpeter describing a situation where the new steps into the
old making the latter old and obsolete. In Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1942), the Austrian-American
Economist wrote, thus: The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development
from the craft shop to such concerns as U.S. Steel illustrate the same process of industrial mutationif I may use
that biological termthat incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying
the old one, incessantly creating a new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about
capitalism.
See, The Concise Encyclopaedia of Economics, Creative Destruction, available at
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/CreativeDestruction.html. (accessed 12th June, 2017).
13
This was when Luddites who were allegedly replaced by machines at the factory, revolted by destroying the
inventions. See, Acemoglu, D. & Robinsons, J.A (2012) Why Nations Fail: The Origin of Power, Prosperity and
Poverty, p. 85
14
The first publicly accepted electronic computer, designed by J. Presper Eckert an astronomer, and John W.
Mauchly a physicist, both of the Pennsylvania University, in the United States of America, was the ENIAC
Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator, and was completed in 1946.
See, Goodnews Daniel (2016) supra.
15
Industries such as manufacturing, sales, media, medical, transportation, education, photography, arts,
engineering, legal, etc. have been revolutionized as business is no longer business as usual in various industries
through the use of computer technology.
See, ibid
16
The Internet as we see today is an evolution of ARPANET - a computer network of the US Military - an
Initiative of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and its simply an abridged form of International Network which
means interconnected networks or a network of networks.
See, The Internet Society, Brief History of the Internet, available at http://www.internetsociety.org/internet/what-
internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet. (accessed 12th June, 2017).
17
Invented in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist at CERN, its different from the Internet in that while
the Internet is the physical infrastructure of connected networks, the WWW is the layer of such connection that
enables networks to communicate through various protocols such as the TCP/IP suite (User Datagram Protocol,
HyperText Transfer Protocol, Domain Name System, File Transfer Protocol, Telnet, Simple Mail Transfer
pg. 5
world order, creating a new world of virtual existence and interaction. The world
was no longer what it was when God created it.18
Today, the 21st century has even witnessed and is still witnessing much more than
the 20th century did. Computer technology continues to grow and advance
exponentially. The Industrial Revolution gave law sufficient reasons to
recontextualize in order to cover the new terrains created by the advent of
machines, inventions and other human creations19, but computer technology has
done even more, radically altering law in various areas, both conceptually20, and
in practice.21
No doubts, the legal profession and law in the 21st century is one built not on
codes but on codes.22 Law in the 21st century is information technology.23 The
21st century lawyer is a fortiori completely different from the lawyer of the last
century.
The 21st Century Law is Moores Law

Only one law matters in the 21st century. It is known as Moores law. The amazing
truth is, not very many lawyers are aware of this law, especially the average
African lawyer24. If as noted, technology influences law both conceptually and in
practice, it is also important to acknowledge and accept that Moores Law is the
Protocol and Post Office Protocol (both for mailing), etc.). It is a collection of web pages written in HyperText
Marked Up Language (HTLM).
See, CERN, The Birth of the Web, available at, https://home.cern/topics/birth-web. (accessed 20th March, 2017).
18
While the Creation account rendered in Genesis Chapter One shows a terrestrial world created by God, man
recreated the world by creating a virtual world that replicates close to 80% of physical interactive realities through
computer technology, ranging from communication (mailing, chatting, conferencing, etc.) to education, dating,
commerce, intimacy, war, terrorism, privacy, etc. See,
19
As man began to exploits his creative power by inventing, Patent law became necessary in order to protect these
creations from being stolen by vultures. See,
20
Now, for instance, we have to reconceptualise the physical element of crime as technology poses the question:
Whats actus reus in cybercrime such as hacking, cyberterrorism, stealing, etc.? Law is forced nolence volence to
redefine itself electronically.
21
Being an information-rich industry, data is no longer managed manually as computer technology has made
available several technology tools to help the legal profession manage information more efficiently. We shall look
more deeply into this later in this Paper.
22
When I say 21st-century Law is no longer built on codes but codes, I mean that, Law no longer refers only to
some corpus of rules codified, but also, a collection of computer codes or programs that create legal value or solve
legal problem. Examples of such law are the various legal tech programs such as document assembly software,
automation applications, e-discovery systems, legal expert systems, data analytics software, etc.
23
Professor John O. McGinnis of North-western School of Law observed, thus: Law is, in effect, an
information technology - a code that regulates social life.
See, John O. McGinnis, Machines V. Lawyers, 4 June 2014 City Journal, available at, https://www.city-
journal.org/html/machines-v-lawyers-13639.html#City%20Journal. (accessed 14th July, 2017).
24
If the African legal industry fails to understand this law, the enormous impact of technology on business growth
in the global legal industry cannot be felt in Africa in the same dimension. I will talk more about this later in this
Paper.
pg. 6
prophecy controlling technology in the 21st century, and perhaps, beyond25. What
is Moores Law? Moores Law is derived from Gordon Moore, Intels cofounder,
who in 1965 predicted that computing power would increase every eighteen
months to two years. In other words, the number of transistors that can fit on a
computer chip (its processing power) will double every eighteen months to two
years. 26
Such exponential growth is already happening today. As a matter of fact, Moores
Law is a self-fulfilling prophecy as evidently, the computational power in a cell
phone today is 1000 times greater and 1 million times less expensive than all the
computing might that was housed in MIT in 1965. Projecting forward, the
computing power 40 years from today (that is, by 2057) could exceed what we
have today by 1 million times. In fact, Moores Law self-fulfils far more
frequently than it posits. 27
But what happens when the size of transistors can no longer shrink? Does it mean
Moores Law will run out? One leading technologist and futurist, Googles
Director of Research - Ray Kurzweil, thinks Moores Law is only a part of a more
general growth in computation as the push for enhanced computation was actually
begun by Electromechanical Methods which were eventually replaced by
Vacuum Tubes. Vacuum Tubes themselves were further replaced by Transistors
giving way to todays Integrated Circuits. Further, other methods of computation
under intense research today are Carbon Nanotechnology and Optical Computing
which could become new platforms for the more-than-a-century-long continued
computation growth.28
Now if this is tenable, then Moores Law as long as it holds true, is the actual law
that regulates social life, and in some degree, delivering legal services through
machine intelligence. This is because the 21st century law has certain areas that
now face encroachment by machine intelligence - the result of Moores Law.
These areas include discovery (now e-discovery), document automation and
assembly (legal forms), legal analytics, etc.
The major challenge of the 21st century lawyer is machine intelligence, as it keeps
growing exponentially, deepening its disruptive cut in the legal industry, and
25
Since most great minds in the Technology industry, such as Ray Kurzweil, already believe that this law will run
out when transistors can no longer shrink, it might not be tenable much later as other researches are currently
being carried out to further increase computation growth. That means computing power might even double daily,
not 18 -24 months as Gordon Moore predicted!
26
See, http://www.mooreslaw.org/
27
See, ibid
28
See, Joel Mokyr, The New Age of Invention, City Journal Winter 2014, available at https://www.city-
journal.org/html/next-age-invention-13618.html (accessed 15th July, 2017)
pg. 7
lawyers who fail to embrace it, would unavoidably lose their clients to either T-
Shaped lawyers or at worst, go out of business being disintermediated by the very
vendors of these technologies.
The I-Shaped Lawyer V. The T-Shaped Lawyer

There is a whole lot of difference between the lawyer of the last century and the
lawyer of the 21st century, both in opportunities, challenges, training, and nous.
The 20th century lawyer is what is known as the I-Shaped Lawyer. All they
boasted of was their deep legal expertise as represented by the straight I. Their
training was solely in Law and nothing else, hence, giving them enormous legal
knowledge with which they were able to navigate the tides and times of their
day.29
They were given to hard copy books, which was the only source of information
they had, thus, they were natural habitus of the library. Their curriculum was
centred around core Law Courses such as Law of Torts, Criminal Law, Contract
Law, Land Law, Jurisprudence, Company Law, Constitutional Law,
Administrative Law, Evidence Law, Commercial Law, and of course, procedural
law courses. That was the focus of their training and practice. Least wonder, they
consumed so much legal information and were adept, but lawyers in general,
despite their intelligence and skill at resolving legal issues, are considered
laggards and luddites when it comes to any changes that might affect their
practices. 20th-centrury lawyers, for instance, still prefer to avoid computers and
leave necessary online communications to their staffs. In the words of R. Amani
these are the 20th century lawyers running out the clock until retirement.30
Also, the I-Shaped lawyer was given to some sort of bespoke legal work: one
onone, as opposed to the one-to-many legal service delivery approach of the T-
Shaped lawyer. This is because legal service was tailored to individual client as
every situation was considered unique.
On the other hand, 21st century T-Shaped lawyers are almost diametrically
opposed both in training and in practice to the I-Shaped. They are known as T-
Shaped lawyers in that while they have a deep knowledge of the law as was for
29
Amazingly, most lawyers in the 21st century are still purely I-Shaped but because of the change in information
structure in modern society, their relevance is becoming increasingly untenable.
See, R. Amani Smathers, The 21st-Century T-Shaped Lawyer, ABA Law Practice Magazine, July-August 2014,
Volume 40 Number 4, available at
https://www.americanbar.org/publications/law_practice_magazine/2014/july-august/the-21st-century-t-shaped-
lawyer.html (accessed 12th July, 2017).
30
See, R. Amani, supra.
pg. 8
20th-century lawyers, they also have a breath of knowledge across other fields that
enable them to competently navigate through practice in the midst of new
circumstances and issues raised by technology.
They are not only trained in the core courses of the I-Shaped lawyers, but also
acquire more knowledge in areas different from law. These areas amongst several
others include legal project management, data analytics, legal technologies, e-
discovery, data security, entrepreneurial lawyering, legal design thinking,
computer programming, etc.
Figure 1 The T-Shaped Lawyer

Source: ABA Law Practice Magazine 2014
This equips them for the 21st century that is fraught with wonders of technology
that demand proficient use or at least acquaintance knowledge of technology to
successfully handle and maintain relevance as technology has produced several
alternatives to the legal profession for providing legal services to consumers. 31
THE AFRICAN LEGAL MARKET

The global legal market size is estimated to be over $500 billion. According to
BusinessWire, the USA was the largest country in the legal services market in
2016, accounting for about $290 billion or 45% of the global market. The UK
was the second largest market, accounting for about $45 billion or 7% of the
global market. Germany was the third largest market, accounting for about $25
31
We shall discuss this later on in this paper
pg. 9
billion or 4% of the global market. France account for 3.5% and $20 billion, while
Japan accounted for 0.5% of the global legal services market.32
In other words, only the United States accounted for over 40 percent of the global
value of legal services market in 2016, sharing the rest with other advanced
economies such as Germany, UK, Japan and others. That said, in 2011, Africa
accounted for only 4 percent of global legal spend, whereas, it is anticipated to
account for 12 percent by 2025 33 What factors will cause such significant
increase in Africas share of the global legal spend?
According to World Bank, between 2012 and 2025, Africa is expected to be the
second fastest growing region in the world behind Asia in terms of real GDP
growth.34 That is, in terms of population, a burgeoning middle class, and a
growing GDP. Now, John Cussons and Nicholas Bruch state that Between 2000
and 2011, Africas average annualised real GDP growth (real purchasing power
parity dollars) was 4.3 per cent; in the period 2012 to 2025 it is expected to be 4.2
per cent. For comparison, Asias average growth was 4.4 per cent and is expected
to remain at this level as far as 2025. The world average growth is predicted to be
3.2 per cent with advanced economies at 2.1 per cent, demonstrating the speed of
advancement in the emerging economies and, in particular, in Africa. 35It means
that Africa with her vast natural resources will become a compelling investment
destination for international investors.36
Africas allure as investment destination is underpinned by certain factors which
include but not limited to rapid rate of urbanization, exponential population
growth, and an emerging middle class with disposable income. This is driven by
a population growth projection of 1.5 billion by 2030, and 1.2 billion living in the
city by 2050, with over 70% of sub-Saharan Africa living in free or partially free
democracies. 37
Globally, Ernst & Young projects world population growth of 2.3 billion,
reaching a total of 9.1 billion, by 2050. As a result of rising prosperity, it is
estimated that the worlds middle classes will have a combined purchasing power
of $56 trillion by 2030 more than double the current levels.38 This projected
32
BusinessWire, Global Legal Services Market Report 2017 Research and markets, May 4th 2017, available at,
www.businesswire.com/news/home/2017504005920/en/Global-Legal-Services-Report-2017-
33
Lex Mundi, Emerging Africa Conference Proceedings, 11 July 2016, available at, HTTP:
https://www.thelawyer.com/issues/11-july-2016/africa-the-great-opportunity/ (accessed 11th July, 2017).
34
World Bank, Africas Future and the World Bank Support for it, March 2011.
35
John Cussons & Nicholas Bruch, Into Africa: Opportunities and Risks in the African Legal Market, 2013 Ark
Group.
36
See Lex Mundi supra
37
Ibid
38
See Ernst & Young, Six Global Trends
pg. 10
global population growth will radically transform the global business landscape
as new opportunities will arise to supply this demand.
With Africas projected population escalation to 1.5 billion by 2030, Africa will
have the largest workforce by 2040 as shown in Table 1 which shows the
projected average annual population growth of Africa compared to other regions39
This means that investors will be attracted more to Africa than any other regions
of the world. And as these investors throng the Continent, the African legal
market will also snowball as there will be lots of regulatory, compliance and M
& A deals to handle. But this depends on several other factors we shall consider
as we discuss more.
Average Annual Population Additional working age
Growth population millions
(2012 2025) (2012-25)
Africa 2.9% 309
India 1.1% 201
China 0.2% 42
South East Asia 0.9% 78
Latin America 0.9% 76
Europe 0.3% 22
North America 1.0% 46
Table 1: Projected Annual Average Population Growth 2012 2025

Source: United Nations World Population Prospect
Today, Africas enormous natural resources are already attracting several

advanced and emerging economies for investment. From 2000, China has been
Africas biggest investor and partner. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce reports
that Chinas investment in Africa, spanning the period 1998 2012 includes
about 2000 Chinese firms investing in 49 African countries.40
However, Chinas Overseas Direct Investment (ODI) in various sectors of the
African economy indicates no investment connection with the legal sector41, even
when several other sectors in the service industry were touched, perhaps because
of adverse regulatory conditions which is one of the major challenges inhibiting
the inflow of FDI into the African economy42.
39
ibid
40
Wenjie Chen, David Dollar and Heiwai Tang, Why is China Investing in Africa? Evidence from the firm level,
August, 2015, p.3.
41
See, ibid
42
See Lex Mundi, supra
pg. 11
As market globalization continues to shape the development of industry sectors

globally, including legal service, resulting in countless domestic and cross-border
mergers, alliances and networks over the last 20 years, African legal market, like
the BRIC43 nations, is forced to make a choice between adopting either
protectionism or liberalism as their legal market access approach. While the
former means that regulatory conditions restrict foreign incursion into the legal
market, the latter allows globalization to have its way even in the legal service
market, hence, creates room for foreign entry. The fact is, Bar
associations44across Africa have their different and various approaches to market
access but are all subsumed under the aforesaid polar extremes.
Accordingly, in North Africa, for instance, albeit Morocco and Algeria are
coterminous and competitive, their legal market entry approaches are different.
Whereas Morocco adopts a liberal market access approach having a regulatory
framework that entices and encourages international investors and influential
international law firms, Algeria is protectionist in their market access approach
as the legal market lacks a legislation that would allow for an open market even
though it was announced in 2016 that an investment code was being put in place
to liberalize the market.45
A glance at the legal market in Sub-Saharan Africa, commonly known for its
natural resources and a fast-growing FDI, reveals that many European, North
American, and Asian law firms are in discussions with local professionals.
Portugals Miranda & Associates, for instance, has a foothold on the legal market
in Angola and Mozambique, creating a network of lawyers located in about ten
countries across the Continent.
African lawyers themselves are also contending for the legal market. AELEX, a
Nigerian law firm, for instance, has offices in other parts of Africa, though
43
BRIC Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Brazils legal market is protectionist, hence, creates little room for international firms to enter the legal market,
only few of UK and US international firms - Linklaters, Baker & McKenzie, Clifford Chance and White & Case
are present with restriction not to use their international brand names as bar rules restrict them to operate in
association with Brazilian firms. Spanish firms are also present in Brazil.
Russias legal services market is burgeoning and has come a long way given that 50 years ago, there were no law
firms at all. Russian legal market is liberalized, hence, has UK, American, German and Russian firms in it.
Examples are Baker & McKenzie, Freshfields Bruckhaus Derringer, Clifford Chance, Slaughter & May, etc.
Indias legal market is highly protectionist. But the big news in 2006 was the union of two of the oldest law firms
- Fox Mandal and Little & Co. The merged entity Fox Mandal Little is now the countrys largest law firm,
having about 37 partners across 8 offices. Bar rules strongly keep foreign law firms at a distance as many local
firms staunchly oppose its legal market liberalization save few such as Fox Mandal Little which openly subscribes
to foreign incursion.
Chinas legal market is highly liberalized, having several foreign law firms in it.
See, Claire Plarre, BRICSA: The Evolution of the Five Legal Markets in Emerging Economies
44
In Nigeria, for instance, the Legal Practitioners Act of 1962 forbids one who has not been called to the Nigerian
Bar to practice law. Jurisdictional restrictions are traditional to the legal profession but the 21 st century legal
profession is delocalized cross-border and multijurisdictional.
45
See, The African Legal Market: An Exciting Story in the Making
pg. 12
headquartered in Nigeria. Other bigger networks are African Legal Alliance and
LEX Africa founded in 1993 and composed of top-tier law firms from 20
countries. 46
Further, the presence of African Development Bank in Ivory Coast (Abidjan)
attracts international law firms to its market. Orrick, for instance, entered the
market in 2014. French speaking countries such as Cameroun, seem to attract
more of French firms. For instance, Lefevre, Pelletier & Associates entered
Cameroun in 2016. Moreover, since the African Intellectual Property
Organization is based in Yaound, it naturally attracts international firms to its
legal market. 47
West African institutions such as the Economic and Monetary Union and the
Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law (OHADA)48 in Africa
which provide for a common economic and legal framework amongst member-
states, and their flourishing arbitration practices, are making cross-border trade
and commerce much easier, thus, enhancing investor confidence for entry into
the region, even though individual countries in West Africa have their unique
approaches to legal market incursion. Nigeria, for instance, much as a member of
the World Trade Organization, has not accepted to liberalize their legal services
by signing the General Agreements on Trade in Services (GATS).49
However, the South African legal market so far is the most liberal and mature in
the entire Continent. South Africa is home to international firms such as DLA
Piper, Allen & Overy, Hogan Lowells and Baker & McKenzie. But the most
sought after firms in South Africa are Bowman Gilfilan which has offices in
Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, having close ties with Nigerian film - Udo, Udoma
& Belo-OSagie, Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, ENSafrica, Norton Rose Fullbright and
Webber Wentzel. 50
The bottom-line is that the growing networks of lawyers across the Continent
suggests the rise of Pan-African firms. While behemoth firms such as DLA Piper,
Dentons and Baker & McKenzie strive to spread their tentacles across the
Continent, local firms are also rising to meet this challenge by forming alliances
and networks across the Continent. These alliances (such as African Legal
Network) unite domestic firms which collaborate to meet the needs of cross-
border clients. The core idea and singular objective is to have a Pan-African law
46
ibid
47
Ibid
48
OHADA has about 17 members, out of 54 countries
49
Desmond Guobadia, Globalization of Legal Services What Should Nigeria Do?
50
See, The African Legal Market: An Exciting Story in the Making, supra
pg. 13
firm that is competently equipped to meet the challenges of globalization in the

legal market across Africa. 51
Given the complexities and uncertainties that beset the African legal market,
ranging from unfriendly regulatory conditions, unstable macroeconomic climate,
insecurities amidst a projected rampant population growth, projected rapid
urbanization and a burgeoning middleclass, with less than 4 percent market share
of the global legal value size, how do we drive growth in the African legal
industry in order to arrive at the projected 12% of the global legal spend by 2025?
In the section following, we shall look at the impact of technology in driving
growth in the legal market.
Technology and Business Growth in the African Legal Industry

As earlier noted, technology is the 21st century global economic growth engine.
It is not only a vehicle for global economic revolution and industrial invasive
disruption but a global economic growth driver. According to World Economic
Forum, the number of mobile subscribers as at 2013 was already 6.8 billion,
approaching global population figures, with 40% of people in the world already
online. Computer technology, telecommunications, the internet, and software
technology are transforming economies but the competitiveness of these
economies depends on their ability to leverage new technologies52, just as the
survival of most industries depends on their response to change. This is where the
legal industry in Africa stands vis-a-vis technology.
Technology is an economic growth booster. It is so far one of the largest
employers all around the world. In 2014, Vision Mobile reported that software
technology (app economy) alone generated about 667,000 (direct) and 1 million
(direct and indirect) jobs in Europe, accounting for $16.5 billion in revenue,
which was about 19% of global app economy, recording about 12% annual
growth rate.53 In 2016, the US app economy generated about a total of 9.8 million
jobs (includes indirect and induced impacts), $475.3 billion direct value-added
GDP, $52 billion in Research & Development (by Software companies) with a
total value-added GDP of $1.07 trillion (includes indirect and direct impacts).54
Now in Africa, four countries and four cities from the four regions have been
identified as investment hubs of the Continent. These are Johannesburg (SA,
51
See Francis Iven, Africa Calling How Rapid Change in the Continent is Shaking up its Legal Market, 27th
March, 2015.
52
See Elena Kvochko, Five Ways Technology can Help the Economy, 11 April, 2013, World Economic Forum.
53
See Vision Mobile, The European App Economy 2014, August 2014, available at www.vmob.me/EU14.
54
See BSA, The $ 1 Trillion Economic Impact of Software, June 2016, available at www.bsa.org/softwareimpact
pg. 14
South), Lagos (Nigeria, West), Nairobi (Kenya, East) and Casablanca (Morocco,
North). The city of Lagos in Nigeria alone generated about $136 billion from
Information and Communication Technology in 2016.55 This is how impactful
technology can be to the global economy.
It is therefore pertinent to reiterate that, for African countries to actualize their
economic dream, they must harness their economic potentials through the vehicle
of technology. To this end, we hazard to say that to successfully drive business
growth in the African legal industry, we must deploy the forces of technology in
the under-discussed ways.
Legal Technologies Adoption
Indeed, on a fundamental level, attorneys are in the business of creating

documents.56 According to IBM, 2.5 quintillion (2,500, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000)
bytes of data is being generated every day.57 Can you imagine how much data is
created in 365 days? The volume of data to be generated from between today and
2025 can only be a matter of sheer conjectural dubitation or mere speculative
conclusion.58
This alone gives us an idea of what amount of data the 21st-century legal industry
has to handle daily. How does the African legal industry handle data? It only
provokes mirth to imagine but fury to realize that most African lawyers or law
firms still try to handle data manually.59
How is data processed, stored, retrieved and communicated within the African
legal industry? Are there yet law offices or corporate legal divisions managing or
attempting to manage this volume of data on paper?60
According to a report by BCG & Bucerius Law School, the digitization of legal
data constitutes another megatrend transforming workflows and business models.
55
See Olubode Olusesan, Insecurity Threatens Lagos Tech Growth, $136 billion GDP, 15th July, Punch
Newspapers
56
See Casey Morgan, The Legal Industry V. Technology, StorageCraft.
57
See Sterling Miller, Part 1: Artificial Intelligence and Its Impact on Legal Technology: To boldly Go Where No
Legal Department Has Gone Before, Thompson Reuters.
58
Some years ago, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, estimated that from the dawn of Civilization to 2003, humans
had produced a total of 5 Exabytes (or billion gigabytes) of information. In 2010, that same amount of information
was produced every two days. You can only imagine what amount it will be by 2025. See R. Amani Smathers,
supra
59
See Goodnews Daniel, supra
60
It is almost conventional or normal to move into a typical Nigerian law firm and find stack of paper files
everywhere. It is not different with Ministries of Justice. But recent developments show that this is gradually
changing as many law firms are at least computerizing their firms which is basic office automation, and not legal
technology adoption.
pg. 15
The volume of data used in legal advice has increased exponentially a pattern
seen in many other industries as well. For instance, in the Enron, Lehman
Brothers, and (more recently) Volkswagen cases, lawyers have had to review and
interpret hundreds of thousands of emails and other documents to establish
facts.61
How does the African lawyer analyse data? If, for instance, Rules of Civil
Procedure demand the discovery of all electronically stored information such as
emails, instant messages, voicemails, e-calendars, graphics and data on handheld
devices, in litigation, how would such discovery and accurate identification of
materially relevant data, amidst thousands of such electronically stored
information, especially when corporate clients are involved, be made? This
complex process is known as e-discovery.62 This process cannot be efficiently
manually done any more.63 As a matter of fact, in the future, the ability to screen,
analyse, and interpret unprecedented volumes of data will become just as critical
to law firms success as the art of delivering legal advice.64 Thus a variety of
legal technologies enabling the digitization and automation of these and other
legal-work activities abound.
How does the African lawyer carry out research? We noted that the I-Shaped
lawyer was trained to book for information in the library, but the T-Shaped
lawyer understands that the biggest and richest library is the internet. But beyond
that, he leverages legal technologies designed to expedite his research.65 Besides,
search solutions that used to be Boolean (that is, producing results that match the
search definition only) have been updated with predictive coding.66 Legal
technologies are radically changing the business of law.
Legal technologies - software solutions that either automate legal work or deliver
some sort of legal service or create some kind of legal value, now inundate the
legal industry, and are making threatening attempts to cause colossal disruption
therein. But surprisingly, there is an observable low technology adoption rate
among law firms and lawyers. Regardless of the reason(s) behind such low
61
BCG & Bucerius Law School, How Legal Technology Will Change the Business of Law, Jan 2016.
62
The market value of E-discovery alone has been estimated at around $5.5 billion. One big player in the e-
discovery solutions market is Encase.
63
E-discovery is, perhaps, not yet incorporated into most African civil procedure rules, but in the advanced world
where they apply, e-discovery AI-driven software help out with this cumbersome process.
64
See BCG & Bucerius Law School, supra
65
Legal research solutions include Lexis/Nexis, WestLaw, ROSS Intelligence (worlds smartest legal assistant),
LawPavilion though they are proprietary and as such not free.
66
This is the algorithm behind e-discovery solutions. With predictive coding, the application can learn from
previous search results and determine results that are relevant for future searches. Predictive Coding is learning
from the past and predicting the future. Most legal analytical and search solutions make use of this algorithm too.
Example is RaveLaw
pg. 16
adoption, BCG thinks that law firms that fail to take advantage of legal
technology, or that do not adapt to the new realities it presents, risk losing
corporate clients to more forward-thinking law practices, at best. At worst, they
may go out of businesses entirely, replaced by the very vendors supplying legal-
tech products and services.67 The legal-tech landscape, according to BCG, is as
shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Legal Technology Framework

Source: BCG & Bucerius Law School
Figure 2 above shows that there are three layers of legal technology: substantive
law solutions, support processes solutions and enabler technologies. Simply put,
the enabler technologies are focused on facilitating digitization. These solutions
range from general to legal-specific such as Office automation tools68, cloud
storage tools69, legal collaboration platforms70, and cybersecurity solutions. The
67
ibid
68
Most of these solutions have been developed by general tech vendors. For example, Microsoft Office Suite,
though developed for all industries, are often used in law firms for data digitization.
69
Several Cloud storage tools are in use today, but majority were developed by general tech vendors. Examples
are Google Cloud, Amazon Cloud, etc. These solutions, when used in the legal industry, are referred to as enabler
technologies.
70
These are legal-specific solutions designed to enable lawyers collaborate over the cloud. These solutions are
preferred these days because of security issues with the general tech solutions, for example, Dropbox was hacked
pg. 17
second layer or category of legal technologies are referred to as support-processes

solutions. They are focused on law firms case and client management and back
office work which include human resource management, accounting, customer
relationship management, payroll, billing and finance.71 And of course the third
category referred to as substantive law solutions are designed to support or even
replace lawyers in the execution of certain core legal tasks both in transaction and
litigation.72
That said, it must be noted that, for the African legal industry to grow and increase
its share in the global legal market size, these technologies must not remain alien
to both solo practitioners and law offices. The business of law can grow only by
forceful adoption of legal technologies and adaptation to the new realities created
thereof. These solutions inter alia include legal expert systems, legal
collaboration systems, entrepreneurial lawyering, document assembly and
automation solutions, big data, data science, information security, online case &
client management systems, cloud computing, Cyberlaw, legal bargaining
technologies, e-discovery solutions, legal analytics solutions etc.73
However, there are specific steps to be taken in this direction for African legal
industry to experience growth, much as these are not exclusive and applicable to
only the African legal industry but also the legal industry in most Asian and Latin
American emerging economies, and the advanced economies the world over, by
extension.74
Truth is, African lawyers or the African legal industry should consciously disrobe
itself of the garment of conservatism, and embrace, adopt or adapt to the new
realities created by technology. This is because the distance between its present
position in the global legal market and its potential position therein, is technology.
Embrace it. Leverage it. Grow. But the only step to do this is this: Invest in legal
technology. This will guide the remaining part of our discussion as we discuss
how to leverage legal technologies in the following ways.
in 2012, and several clients information were compromised. The legal industry is not only a data-driven industry;
it is a confidentiality-driven industry also. Thus, specific solutions designed with clients information security in
mind, are better.
71
BCG thinks that the legal profession still lags behind other professional services in deploying the software used
in these solutions.
72
These solutions include AI-driven technologies such Legal Expert Systems, Document Automation and
Assembly solutions, E-discovery solutions, Legal Analytics solutions, legal information retrieval systems, Online
Dispute Resolution systems, etc. For more information on them, see Goodnews Daniel supra
73
For more information on these technologies and their examples, see Goodnews Daniel supra
74
This is because the legal profession is universally technology-adverse and conservative, hence, slow to change,
whether in Africa or America.
pg. 18
Law School Curriculum Update & Continuing Legal Education
Traditional lawyering provides a law school curriculum that is centred only

around legal expertise. That produces 21st century lawyers with 19th century
nous.75 One of the first steps to be taken for adopting or adapting to the new
realities created by technology is that law school curricula across Africa should
be redesigned to include legal technology-related courses.76
Tomorrow law business depends predominantly on today lawyers, and we cannot
expect to have lawyers different from the process that produces them. Moreover,
as the Latin maxim puts it, nemo dat quod non habet 77 The objective of this
approach is to produce lawyers that are technologically-savvy and prepared to
adopt and adapt to the vagaries of technological innovation. Ilina Rejeva believes
that the benefit of teaching legal tech in law schools is that it helps law firms to
put their processes in place, eliminate waste, discover the true added-value their
law firm creates and enable the firm to quote prices accordingly.78
Most forward-looking law schools around the world have designed a curriculum
that integrates legal tech into their curricula.79 Bucerius School of Law in
Germany is one forward-thinking law school that prepares lawyers for the
future.80 Arguably, if law school curriculum changes to meet the demands of
technology, the projected 12% of global legal market spend will become a natural
result.
It begins at the law school where the next generation of lawyers are trained, but
if they are not well equipped with the requisite knowledge and paraphernalia of a
T-shaped lawyer, how can they competently chart the course of the legal
profession beyond what the older generation did? How can they grow the African
legal industry amidst a rapidly growing population, burgeoning middleclass and
a snowballing FDI which are all driven in one direction by the wind of
75
Susskind R., Legal informatics - A Personal Appraisal of Context and Progress, European Journal of Law and
Technology, Vol. 1, Issue 1, 2010.
76
See Daniel Martin Katz, The MIT School of Law? A Perspective on Legal Education in the 21 st Century,
University of Illinois Law Review 2014.
77
You cannot give what you dont have (literally applied here)
78
Ilina Rejeva, LegalTech Knowledge: Will Law Schools React on Time? June14 2016
79
Legal Tech courses include E-discovery, Legal Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Legal Expert System, Legal
Project Management, Artificial Intelligence and Law, Big Data and Data Security, Internet of Things, etc.
80
Others include Stanford Law School, Michigan State University Law School, Miami Law School, Harvard Law
School, etc. These Law Schools all have Law Innovation Centres where they prepare their students to become T-
Shaped in this 21s Century. Stanford law School has Codex; Bucerius Law School has Centre on the Legal
Profession (CLP) & Open Innovation Lab; Miami Law School has LawWithoutWalls; Michigan Law School has
LegalRandD, etc. The big question is, do we have any forward-thinking law school in Africa?
pg. 19
technology? If they fail to become technophisticated, they will become not only
unproductive, but worse still, irrelevant.81
We must remind ourselves that for the legal profession, learning is endless,
education continues. That means law school curriculum redesign will only fix the
younger generation who are themselves digital natives. What becomes of the
digital immigrants - those lawyers or law firms with majority of lawyers trained
and called to Bar before the advent or upsurge of legal technology? This is the
reason for continuing Legal education. Lawyers must not stop learning. They
should be updated with not only information but also technology. That is why it
is called Information Technology.
Accordingly, firms should periodically design seminars for partners and
associates on current practices as regards the use of technology. The growth of
the firm depends on the growth of the people - no lawyer can advise beyond their
knowledge and expertise, and if the required expertise and skill is lacking,
corporate clients are lost, and in the process, African legal spend is adversely
affected. Why must most matters be shipped to London or the US or France if
African layers have the expertise?82
Joint Degree Course for Computer Science & Law
This idea is quite novel in Africa, but it is practicable and a necessity for us to
drive growth in the legal industry across the Continent. In fact, Stanford
University and a host of other universities around the world offer it. The rationale
is that such joint degree programme would produce lawyers with both legal and
technological expertise which would enable them reintermediate the legal
profession as the only medium of legal services delivery as traditionally known.
This Course will have the traditional core law courses as known plus legal
technology design thinking courses such as computer programming. 83
This program will produce technophisticated lawyers who will compete with
lawyers from the most advanced economies and communicate in the same
language technology speaks across the globe. Also, it will produce legal
81
In 2007, Massachusetts Bar Association Law Journal stated categorically, thus: The risk of not riding todays
technological wave is that our profession becomes increasingly irrelevant... Without question, the growth in
choice the public maintains in addressing its legal needs inevitably lowers the value of services we, as a bar, have
traditionally provided. In order to advance, we must embrace the qualities of the digital lawyer. See, Goodnews
Daniel supra
82
We will discuss Specialization later on
83
For more information on it, see Goodnews Daniel supra
pg. 20
creatives84 and bring into reality the idea of the engineer-lawyer.85 We must not
fail to realize that in this technetronic society, the descendants of the goldsmith
seem to replace the descendants of the sophist, but we can have a fusion of both
to produce an unmatched clone. 86 When this is successfully introduced in our
universities, we would have set the pace for producing legal tech from the shores
of Africa, preparing the Continent more adequately, to contend for a larger share
of the global legal spend.
Legal Data Digitization
Another way to adopt legal technology so as to grow in the business of law is to

digitize our data. African lawyers cannot be efficient let alone becoming uber-
efficient when volumes of data are still managed in black and white. Enabler
technologies such as Microsoft Office Suite is a good start. In the African legal
industry, it is almost an aberration not to find lawyers who are technophobic. Why
are lawyers so averse to change? Are lawyers truly laggards or Luddites or both?
Growth in the business of law begins with legal tech adoption which itself begins
with data digitization. Legal data digitization helps to achieve accuracy of data,
proper storage and safety, data integrity protection, errors reduction, access and
retrieval ease, ease of use and easy data modification and updation, and faster
information transfer and communication. Of course, once data is digitized, it can
be easily stored on the cloud which in one way reduces IT cost and increases
efficiency and productivity as it allows for remote access from any part of the
world, and from any device, bypassing all the restrictions of onsite IT facilities.
84
The legal profession is not designed to produce creatives but analysts and perhaps, logicians. More so, lawyers
are trained to think backward the doctrine of stare decisis compels legal minds to be historic, not futuristic.
Lawyers make more use of their memory than their imagination. But this course would give certain creatives who
seem to be trapped in legal reasoning to exercise their creativity in legal tech design and innovation.
85
Justice Posner once called for lawyers trained in the sciences to help out with various high tech issues in the
areas of biotechnology and nanotechnology. See, Law Innovations Seminar: The 21st Century Lawyer: changes
and Challenge, Lex Computus Labs, 2017.
86
Professor John McGinnis maintains that the goldsmiths of modern society seem to be replacing the wordsmith.
This is the case where the goldsmith produces technologies that are taking the jobs of the wordsmith. Its all about
the T-Shaped lawyer. Until and unless a lawyer is T-Shaped, it makes no difference how much of a wordsmith he
is, goldsmiths will soon take his job through their Machine Intelligence-powered solutions. See John McGinnis
supra
pg. 21
Law Office Virtualization
Virtualization simply means putting it up on the cloud.87 In other words, law

office virtualization means that law office work is moved out of the brick-and-
mortar office to the internet for 24/7 access and presence.88 This is implemented
by leveraging various cloud-based services for e-lawyering which is one of the
fastest ways to grow a law business.
Traditional lawyering is bespoke and legal services are delivered on one-to-one
basis within a particular geographical location. In fact, legal traditionalists hardly
believe in cross-border lawyering. They are so legally programmed to adhere
strictly to sacrosanct jurisdictional restrictions imposed by Bar rules, they fail to
realize that business growth and competitive advantage of any kind in the 21 st
century is contingent upon adoption of tech and adaptation - quick response to
change. Truth is, the 21st century lawyer practises law across multiple
jurisdictions. This is the new normal created by globalization. While it may not
be possible to handle litigation in jurisdictions a lawyer is not licensed, advisory
and transactional services are trans-jurisdictional. Law Office Virtualization is
one way to deliver legal services on one-to-many basis. That is growth.
Cloud-based platforms designed specifically for law office virtualization
abound89. Vendors integrate case and client management functionalities into
them. These platforms help with client/counsel communications as documents
can be easily shared between them, schedules can be made, and several other
typically brick-and-mortar office functions are provided to enhance law practice,
spur growth and productivity. One of the advantages of using these cloud
solutions for legal collaboration is the fact that encrypted communication has
been built into them unlike the general platforms where communication is mostly
unencrypted,90 thus, exposed to interception and wiretapping. Again, law firms
87
Cloud here doesnt mean cloud, simpliciter. Its a metaphor for the internet. Cloud Computing is working over
the internet, either by storing information on the internet Infrastructure as a Service, using software solutions
that are running on your browser Software as a Service, or developing applications using the internet Platform
as a Service. Other cloud services abound but these are the basic three.
88
When Richard Susskind predicted the future law firm having access and presence, in his 2008 book, he was
actually talking about cloud-based platforms or client portals. He was referring to a virtual law office where access
and presence is uninterruptible. Its the catalyst for not only growth in the 21st century but also for competitive
advantage.
See Richard Susskind, The End of Lawyers: Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services, (Oxford University,2009)
89
One example of these is MyCase
90
Nicole Black, Lawyers, Cloud Computing and Innovation: How Cloud Computing Facilitates Innovation in the
delivery of Legal Services, I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society, 2014.
pg. 22
can adopt BYOD91 to reduce in-house IT cost as everything they all need to work
with are on the cloud, and are accessible remotely 24/7.
Legal Process Outsourcing
According to Sally Kane, legal process outsourcing (LPO) is the exporting of

legal services to low-wage markets overseas. An increasing number of
companies, large and small, are outsourcing legal work to destinations across the
globe.92 Factors that fuel the legal process outsourcing trend include
globalization, internet growth, increased legal processes automation, economic
changes and the rising cost of legal services, development in data security and
new technology tools. 93
How would this drive growth in the African legal industry? Two ways: (a) Africa
can also become another LPO destination. Like India - the largest LPO
destination, majority of legal systems in Africa have Common Law roots. This
absolutely makes it easy to receive legal work from the UK and the US and other
Common Law-based legal systems New Zealand, Australia, etc.
Besides, the African legal industry has a large pool of competent and skilful legal
workers. In Nigeria alone, over 3000 lawyers are called to the Nigerian Bar,
yearly. Can you imagine how many lawyers have been called to Bar in Nigeria in
the last 10 years? This means that the African legal industry can leverage legal
tech and become a destination for LPO94. But certain basic tech issues must be
resolved to make services available 24/7 and make it cheap too. As earlier noted,
by virtualizing law offices, the industry is being set to become an LPO destination
to attract legal work from other parts of the globe.
(b) Africa can leverage LPO too. Two things are involved: Africa should either
receive legal work from others thereby boosting the African economy and
increasing Africas share of the global legal spend, or give out legal work to cut
down cost and take advantage of the round-the-clock availability to fix home
issues.
The LPO market is one of the fastest growing markets in the global legal industry.
Its global value is estimated to have exceeded $ 2 billion in 2015. Leading LPO
91
BYOD stands for BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE
92
Sally Kane, Legal Process Outsourcing, February 23, 2017, available at http://www.thebalance.com/legal-
process-outsourcing-Ipo-2164405
93
Ibid
94
LPO work is done in various areas of the legal industry such as corporate secretarial services, legal research,
consultancies, ADR, etc.
pg. 23
destinations are India, China, the Philippines, Malaysia, the Caribbean Islands,
Singapore and only one African country included South Africa95. These
countries thrive in the LPO market because of cheap labour with a pool of skilled
legal workers. Africa is the Continent of the brave, bright and beautiful. If South
Africa could do it, other African countries can follow suit. It is one of the ways
to drive growth in the business of law.
Bar Associations Tech Division and Legislations Updation
The African Legal industry can also adopt technology by creating Tech
Divisions96 within various Bar Associations and Legal Tech Resource Centres
97
where lawyers are regularly trained and updated with current legal technologies
to enhance their legal practice, across the continent. Bar Associations should
partner with tech vendors for such trainings as lawyers productivity depends on
their knowledge and use of technology.
Also, the rapid growth of technology causes lag for the legal profession. Most
legislations in Africa, as it is in most parts of the globe, are lagging behind
technology.98 Africa lacks comprehensively updated legislations on common
technology realities such as data protection99, privacy, cybercrime100, data
security, intellectual property101, electronic defamation102 etc., let alone more
bizarre and complex areas like virtual reality, biotechnology, nanotechnology,
robotics, brain-computer interface, internet of things etc.
95
www.grandviewresearch.com/indutry-analysis/legal-process-outsourcing-Ipo-market.
96
The American Bar Association Tech Division for instance is responsible for putting TechShows and
Conferences to constantly educate lawyers on tech and law.
97
These Centres are for legal tech training, research and innovation. In Nigeria, Lex Computus Labs exists for this
purpose, and desires to partner with various Bar Associations across the Continent for training of lawyers on legal
tech, and carrying out research on Computational Law. Lex Computus Labs is an Artificial Intelligence and Law
Labs for entrepreneurial lawyering.
98
Truth is, unlike Technology that changes almost every five years or less, law can exist and apply in a society
for over a century. In the Nigerian Legal System, for instance, some of the Statutes of General Application are
over 300 years old. These Statutes (Sale of Goods Act for example) were crafted when there was no internet. How
then do you expect such legislation that was enacted with no contemplation of a virtual world, cater for and cover
all virtual commercial transactions? Now even when certain legislations are updated to adapt to the new realities
created by tech, technology still changes faster, and legal processes cannot be as much fast and fluid to meet up.
It is called Law Lag
99
Advanced and emerging economies such as the UK, US, Canada, Japan, China, Malaysia etc., all have their
respective legislations on data protection. Most African countries dont even the amongst the biggest economies,
only South Africa has adopted her Protection of Personal Information Act. At the time of writing, Kenya,
Morocco, and Nigeria dont have yet, much as there have been claims that work is ongoing to that effect.
100
Nigerian enacted her Cybercrime Act in 2015 but how much it caters for and covers virtual criminal activities
is unknown yet as there are yet to be case law on this area.
101
The need to update our Intellectual Property legislations is urgent. Take Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, for
example, where IT work software vendors are increasing rapidly, our IP legislation must be updated to
differentiate source code from executables, and determine who owns what. Recent Supreme Court decision in the
US seems to open a new part in this regard. Where does software fall under: Copyright or Patent? Is it possible
to categorize Source Code as Copyright and Executable Code as Patent? What does our Intellectual Property Act
say about it?
102
Our law must also be able to deal with electronic defamation. Example, UK Defamation Act 2013
pg. 24
The Continent also needs a Continent-wide Data Protection Directive like the EU
Data Protection Directive to help with this process.
Legal Market Liberalization
Traditionally, the legal profession, the world over, maintained absolute

jurisdictional limitations. Statutes and Rules of Practice designed by Bar
associations103 around the world limited law practice to specific local jurisdictions
in which a lawyer was called.104 This practice militated against multi-
jurisdictional law practice and limited law firms cross-border expansion. In other
words, jurisdictional restrictions powered by regulatory frameworks invariably
stifled business growth in the legal industry. How else could business growth
limitation be better defined and explained other than cross-border expansion
prohibition?
But today, the situation is different as like other industries, the legal service
market has not itself been spared the overarching influence of globalization.105
This is because as economies, emerging and advanced alike, have grown, the
demand for cross-border legal services has also grown in tandem.106 This has
resulted in the merger, alliance and network of firms across borders for globalized
delivery of legal services. As such, international behemoth firms such as DLA
Piper, Baker & McKenzie, Slaughter & May, Clifford Chance, Dentons, Allen &
Overy etc. strategize to spread their practice tentacles across Africa, having
already made significant market entry in most liberalist parts of the continent.107
In the same vein, African domestic firms are also forming alliances and creating
networks to produce Pan-African law firms for cross-border law practice within
the Continent. Many of such alliances include Africa Legal Network, Lex Africa,
etc., but as earlier noted, different African legal markets adopt their unique market
entry approach. While some are highly protectionist, others are liberalist. While
it has been argued that a liberalist market access would open up the legal market
103
In Nigeria, for example, the Legal Practitioners Act, 1962, Sections (1) and (2) unambiguously provided such
limitation with exceptions though.
104
D.D. Dodo, The Challenges of the Nigerian Lawyer in the 21 st Century Global Legal Market Place, 12
November 2015, Nigerian Law School, Abuja.
105
Desmond Guobadia explains, thus: Globalization essentially is the world-wide process of homogenizing
prices, products, wages, rates of interest and profits. The primary objective is to break down impediments that
unnecessarily clog relations among countries and thereby create fully integrated world economy where borders,
jurisdictions, would thin out and be replaced by homogenous economies and products, integration of economies
around the world, particularly through trade and financial flows. See, Desmond Guobadia, Globalization of Legal
Services What Should Nigeria Do?
106
Ibid
107
These firms already have a foothold on the legal market of the liberalist countries in Africa. Investment
destinations such as Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Morocco are already hosting some of them.
pg. 25
to international firms and create broad based synergies and amalgams between
the global firms and the local firms which would strengthen local content 108, it
has also been argued from a protectionist standpoint that legal service market
delocalization and the resultant proliferation of global firms would stifle the
development of domestic firms.
But can the African legal industry drive and experience real growth and increase
its share of the global legal spend, achieving and perhaps, exceeding its projected
12% increase by 2025 with several legal and regulatory walls erected against
international market incursions? Certain countries and cities have already been
identified as investment destinations in Africa. These cities are Lagos,
Johannesburg, Nairobi and Casablanca. Truth is, if these countries or specifically,
cities fail to put conducive investor-friendly regulatory frameworks in place,
foreign investors would be discouraged109 and it will deplete the inflow of FDI110
which will in turn reduce the amount of legal work and legal spend in the market.
We understand that the sole of objective of World Trade Organization is to
liberalize trade across borders in the world. One of the several agreements signed
by member-states is GATS General Agreement on Trade in Services111, which
is designed to liberalize services, including legal services, amongst member-
states, but most African countries have not signed this Agreement to open up their
legal market to the forces of globalization. Also, other attempts to remove trade
restrictions among African countries have been made. One of such is the 17-
member OHADA Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in
Africa which seeks to create cross-border trade relations among member-states.
That said, instead of being completely protectionist or liberalist in market entry
approach, African legal markets can adopt a mild fusion liberal protectionism
- a seemingly noncommittal stance to leverage its advantages and minimize its
perceived disadvantages as the forces of globalization continue to fight for legal
service delocalization, albeit most advanced economies adopt a fully liberalist
approach.112 Therefore, African legal markets can be liberalized with a
protectionist condition. International firms can be allowed entry into the legal
108
See Desmond Guobadia, supra
109
Lagos State already established the Office of Overseas Affairs & Investment to boost international investment
in Lagos, and has also created investor-friendly legal and regulatory frameworks such as land reform act, double
taxation treaties, limited liability reviews and Free Trade Zones.
110
Lagos State Government, Nigeria reported FDI of 13m in the city of Lagos in the first half of 2016 which was
50% more than the total volume of FDI in 2015
111
GATS is one of the 60 agreements and decisions signed in 1994 at the conclusions of the Uruguay Round of
negotiations. When countries sign GATS, they are committed themselves to periodic negotiations to progressively
eliminate barriers to international trade in services without requiring further approval from other member-states.
See Section (19) of GATS.
112
Example is Australia
pg. 26
market but not permitted to retain their international brand names. In other words,
global firms seeking entry in the market must do so through partnership with
domestic firms. That way, Africa can enjoy the enormous benefits of legal service
liberalization and experience growth in the legal industry.
Social Networking
Social networking has the potential and tremendous power to transform the
business and practice of law. Lawyers and legal professionals around the globe
can connect with ease. Law firms can advertise their business on social media and
easily have referrals and grow their client base. On Facebook, for instance, a law
firm can have a page and command large followership through sponsored
advertisement. All it needs is dedicated time to manage. Social networking is
changing how legal professionals, law firms and lawyers recruit, network and
interact with clients. These platforms, for the most part, can be key marketing
tools helping lawyers and law firms to reach a broad audience and grow thereby
as they deliver cross-border transactional and advisory services using the
internet.113
Mergers & Acquisitions
Another way to experience growth in the legal industry is by forming alliances,

networks or merger. With an exponentially growing internet, legal services are
becoming increasingly liberalized as cross-border limitations are giving way to
globalization. That means, as global firms penetrate the African legal market,
competition on cross-border commercial transactional and advisory services will
heighten. This will necessitate the merger move for most domestic firms in order
to afford them a foothold in the market.
Also, as FDI increases, and investors find abode in the continent, legal work in
terms of M&A will also increase. According to African Development Bank
Group, cross-border M&A transactions in Africa rose dramatically from $485
million in 1990 to $44 billion in 2010 but dropped in 2011 to $27 billion. 114 It is
however forecast to rise in the future, and domestic firms need to consolidate to
compete with the present international firms on M&A deals.115
113
Examples of trending social networking platforms are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
114
AFDB Group, Mergers and Acquisitions, 2012, available at https://www.afdb.org/en/blogs/afdb-championing-
inclusive-growth-across-africa/post/mergers-and-acquisitions-in-africa-10163/ (accessed 20th July, 2017)
115
Clifford Chance - an international behemoth law firm alone handled an increased 50% M&A deals in East
Africa in 2016. Where are the domestic firms? Local firms need to consolidate, merge or ally with others to be
more formidable in size and manpower to forge growth in the industry. The African legal market has a Small
Law syndrome as there are very few, if any at all, law firms having above 100 partners in Africa.
pg. 27
Specialization
According to BCG, small, generalist practices face a serious risk of disruption,

being edged out of the market by technology vendors or law firms that leverage
technology.116 Put differently, law firms and lawyers who practise general law,
that is, without a specialty area, would be put out of business by technology
vendors or their counterparts who choose to adopt technology. The need to
specialize cannot be overemphasized as failure to do so would unavoidably result
in disruption.
African lawyers need to understand that technology or tech vendors are their
number one opposing counsel, not another lawyer or firm. Law firms should seek
to cave their niche in an area of practice or face the risk of being generalist
practice. Only specialization can afford lawyers in Africa the opportunity and
skill to compete against others from more advanced economies. Specialty areas
117
abound but one area that the 21st-century African lawyer must seek to have
expertise in is Telecommunications Media & Technology.118 Perhaps, Franck
Soutuol and Jeremy Giacopazzi of Inlex Africa were right when they said that
90% of African lawyers were generalists.119 For them, that is a great opportunity
in West Africa, particularly. Growth is not in being a generalist but a specialist.
Therefore, specialize to grow.
Softwarization
Softwarization120 is a tech neologism. It has two meanings in relation to the

impact of software technology in the world over. First, it refers to the process of
transforming an industry through the power of software technology. Simply put,
it refers to software invasion of an industry. Second, it refers to when a firm or
an organization from a different industry transforms itself into a software
vendor121. It is also known as softgrafting.122
116
See BCG & Bucerius Law School, supra
117
Specialty areas among others include ADR (ODR Online Dispute Resolution is already taken up by
Technology No room for human interferences there), Corporate & Business law, Oil & Gas law, Information
Technology law (sub-areas could be nanotech and biotech), Patent law, Intellectual Property law, Environmental
law, Employment & Labour law, Criminal law, etc.
118
TMT is about Big Data, Data Protection, and the legal market place.
119
See African Legal Markets: An Exciting Story in the Making, supra
120
Its a term coined by Goodnews Daniel in his book, What if the Computer Replaces the lawyer?
121
Amazon wasnt a software company but an online book retailing store until they softwarized and became one
of the leading vendors in Cloud Computing.
122
Softgrafting is a portmanteau word for Software and Engrafting. It means engrafting a firm into the software
industry as a vendor.
pg. 28
This is so far the biggest step the legal industry in Africa can dare to take. BCG
recommends for Big Law123 to consider investing heavily in legal tech which
implies developing legal tech solutions. One of the countermeasures against
disintermediation attempts by tech vendors is to softwarize. Law firms can begin
to collaborate with tech vendors within the Continent for such innovations. This
also means entrepreneurial lawyering. Softwarizing a law firm can also create
room for Alternative Business Structures124for expansion and growth. If a law
firm partners with a non-legal organization, say, tech vendor, the outcome would
be meeting both legal needs and legal tech needs using in-house resources.
CHALLENGES OF THE AFRICAN LEGAL INDUSTRY

According to Lex Mundi, the total power capacity for the whole of Sub-Saharan
Africa is less than that of Spain. South Africa has a population of 50m but a peak
capacity of 45, 000 MW. Nigeria has a population that is three times this but has
a peak capacity of only around 4,000 MW.125
We cannot be discussing technology and its impact on business growth without
tackling the very power that drives technology itself - which is electric power
supply. Without power, there is no technology. Part of the reason for the low tech
adoption rate in Africa is epileptic power supply across the Continent. How can
the power capacity of a country be more than a Continents? Everything the 21 st
century lawyer does is centred around power, ranging from mobile device use to
cloud services access. LPO is a 24/7 available service. If the power issue is not
fixed, LPO cannot be effective. Virtual law office is a 24/7 office. Yes, it is
always available, but is it also always accessible? How about the BYOD office?
The power challenge is the number one challenge to be tackled if the legal
industry must adopt tech and grow.
Another major challenge of the African legal industry is the few number of legal
tech vendors available in Africa. The legal tech landscape in Africa is very virgin
and open for exploration, but very few players are on the pitch. Kenyan start-up
123
Big Law is a term used to describe Fortune 500 or 1000 Legal. Examples are Allen & Ovary, Baker &
McKenzie, Slaughter and May, DLA Piper, etc.
124
ABS is the current law business model adopted in most countries with little variances. The alternative service
provider category spans a wide array of non-traditional law firm service providers, including legal process
outsourcing firms, legal staffing firms, accounting firms, technology consulting firms, and many others. It allows
for these non-traditional law firms to own and control law firms or partner with law firms to provide legal service.
Thus, in some jurisdiction, accounting firms acquire and control law firms; whereas in others, they form
collaboration or offer legal-related services that dont constitute the formal practice of law. This business model
is not about legal market entry but industry entry where non-law firm is legally allowed to provide legal service.
Accounting firms, for example, are currently permitted to own and control law firms in Australia, Britain and
Mexico, but in China, Germany, Spain, France, Canada (Ontario), Italy, and Japan, they cannot own and control
law firms; they can only collaborate with law firms.
See George Town Law & Peer Monitor, 2016 Report on the State of the Legal Market, 2016
125
pg. 29
Uwakili, Nigerian LegalForms, DIYLaw, Lawvers, Lex Computus Labs, South

African LexNova, Zimbabwean Citizen Justice, Ugandan Barefoot Law, are some
of the few legal tech start-ups in the Continent. But there is need for more
investment in legal tech start-ups as this will stoke up tech consciousness in the
African legal industry and increase the prevailing legal-tech literacy level, thus,
conscientizing and causing lawyers to embrace entrepreneurial lawyering.126
Furthermore, the African legal industrys growth potential is somewhat stifled by
hostile legal and regulatory frameworks in most legal systems within the
Continent. If there are no investor-friendly regulations designed to reliably and
consistently facilitate cross-border transactions, potential investors would be
disenchanted. Why is OHADA membership only 17 out of 54, and predominantly
Francophones? A Continent-wide Regulatory Body should be set up to regulate
trade and business relations within the Continent and without, in addition to
Country-specific investment and business codes.
Also, there is a perceived indifference towards technology from lawyers in
general. It is a universal phenomenon.127 The modern law office workforce is a
mix of both digital natives - very young lawyers who were born into technology
and understand tech basics, as opposed to their digital immigrant counterparts
older lawyers, especially those called to Bar before the internet. These two sets
of people would approach legal work differently. While one would be
conservative, the digital natives would be slightly unconventional even in the
delivery of legal service. Older lawyers seem to be unmotivated with technology
acquaintance and use. Least wonder, Richard Susskind remarked that the average
lawyer is practically unconcerned about the future of his profession.128 Only a
revolution would dislodge this perception and reaction.
In addition to the aforementioned, the legal industry also faces every other
challenge that other industries face for growth: unstable macroeconomic climate,
political unrest and restiveness, increasing insecurity and terrorism, albeit that
most parts of the Continent now enjoy free democracies, and others, partially free
democracies.129
126
Entrepreneurial Lawyering has to do with (1) Helping out Startups with the legally required processes involved
with their start-up, and compliance with legal requirements. (2) It has to do with lawyers innovating the law and
legal practice. It refers to lawyers entrepreneurial activities as regards legal practice innovation and legal tech
adoption, adaption and development. It is the second aspect that relates to legal tech startups.
127
Lawyers are the same everywhere. They have the same disposition probably because they are all trained to do
same thing same way through same process. Law lags behind tech, and lawyers are generally averse to tech,
whether in the US or Africa. Why do you think would lawyers in the US, in an attempt to excuse themselves from
tech, or responding from that ingrained phobia for tech, say: I came to Law school so I wouldnt have to do
maths., Im hired not because Im a great tech guy, but because Im a great lawyer? These clichs are from
lawyers in the most advanced economy in the world. How different are they from the ones from a little village in
Africa who have no idea about technology, and as such are technophobic?
128
Susskind R., Legal Informatics A Personal Appraisal of Context and Progress, European Journal of Law
and Technology, Vol. 1, Issue 1, 2010.
129
pg. 30
However, the greatest challenge the legal industry in Africa stands to face in the
event that legal tech is not embraced wholesale is creative destruction. This could
be the lot of firms and solo practitioners who fail to adopt and or adapt to the new
realities created by technology. Like every other industry facing disruption, if the
African legal industry fails to recontextualize, it will lose its relevance to forward-
thinking Alternative Business Providers such as accounting firms and tech
vendors who through technology, deliver cheap legal service to consumers in a
smarter and more efficient ways. Rules of Professional Practice may not be able
to deter it just as regulatory restrictions cannot halt or stop legal service
delocalization.
CONCLUSION
A global research study conducted by Deloitte shows that both demand and spend
for legal services is growing with some areas experiencing faster growth than the
others.130 Conventional law firms are no longer meeting todays business
needs131, thus, about 55% (of the participants in the study legal counsel, general
counsel, or CEOs and CFOs) have taken or are considering a significant review
of their legal suppliers132 as doing more with less, appropriate use of technology
and the speed of business were identified as the biggest challenges of in-house
legal departments today.133
In the same vein, George Town Law reports that corporate clients now insist on
having more value for their legal spend, emphasizing greater efficiency,
predictability, and cost-effectiveness. This change in client attitude in legal
service purchasers and expectations from legal services providers has brought
fundamental changes to the legal market.134 Greentarget also notes that traditional
law firms will continue to face pressures from clients for more for less as the
pool of alternative legal service providers continues to grow in its types of
players, ranging from legal process outsourcers to secondment and virtual firms,
and, albeit these disruptors currently represent only 1% of the legal market, by
2020, they are projected to have an exponential annual growth rate of 20 - 30%,
130
While early half (49%) of all participants in the study said that their department legal spend was growing in
the area of regulatory compliance, other growth areas include M & A (42%) and litigation (39%)
131
One in every three legal services purchasers surveyed want their legal services provider to bring industry,
commercial and non-legal expertise, which currently they do not. Purchasers also want law firms to be more savvy
on global data and cyber security protection issues and more pro-active in sharing knowledge across many
jurisdictions. Traditional law firms are seen to be trailing other professional services firms in this area. See,
Deloitte, Future Trends for Legal Services, Global Research Study, June 2016.
132
55% of in-house legal departments are considering buying legal services from non-traditional law firms,
according to Deloittes study. That means preference for Alternative Business Providers is rising within the legal
market, and law firms should adopt ABS in order to retain clients. These ABS are mostly tech vendors and
accounting firms. Technology is the shifting agent.
133
See Deloitte, Future Trends for Legal Services, Global Research Study, June 2016.
134
GeorgeTown Law & Peer Monitor, 2017 Report on the State of the Legal Market, Thompson Reuters 2017.
pg. 31
picking away at traditional law firm revenue (and client relationships) one move
at a time.135
Fundamentally, the legal industry is undergoing changes that are arguably
irreversible. These changes include shrinking percentage of legal work assigned
to traditional law firms as the percentage of alternative legal service providers
continues to increase, business model innovations136 and disruptors.137 Also, Piet
Faber138 stressed that in addition to the various trends in the industry, Artificial
Intelligence will also greatly influence the law firm of the future.139
Whereas the global legal industry is still suffering from the 2008 Great Recession,
which is part of the cause for the several changes within the legal service
market140, the legal market in Africa also suffered141a blow when Africas
economies were hit in 2016142. These economies are repricing in 2017.143
Therefore, for law firms in particular, and the African legal industry, by
extension, to experience growth, and realize its projected 12% increase in global
legal market share by 2025, wholesale technology adoption, business
remodelling, legal market liberalization, alliances, specialization, softwarization
and or softgrafting, and entrepreneurial lawyering may be the only available
recourse. But the question is: Can technology abide where there is no power?
135
See Greentarget, 2017 Predictive Legal Trends, 2017.
136
Transitioning from BigLaw to NewLaw. While the former is traditional, the latter focuses more on leveraging
legal tech, creating work-life balance, and alternative fee arrangement (AFA) instead of the traditional billable
hour model.
137
Greentarget says: Strategies being undertaken by firms include collaborations with those that are presenting
the greatest threats: their clients, alternative service providers and legal tech startups. In addition, proactive firms
and those with the available resources are making strategic investments and building up their own technologies
and alternative provider options. See Greentarget, supra
138
ENSafrica Chief Executive Officer
139
Kathleen Kriel, Legal Practice of the Future Discussed at Practice Management Conference, Oct.,2015.
140
See GeorgeTown Law, 2017 Report on the State of the Legal market, supra
141
Remarking upon the state of the Africas legal market, Lex Mundi reports that Oil producing countries such
as Nigeria and Angola are really suffering as so are the law firms that are based there. See Lex Mundi, Africa
the Great opportunity, supra
142
Regions that depend majorly on commodity export suffered a slump in commodity prices in 2016. Oil prices,
for instance, dropped drastically, and affected such oil-dependent economies a great deal.
143
See Deloitte, African Trends Going into 2017, February 2017
pg. 32
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ani Wilson, Angwunta David, Eneje Beatrice & Okwo Mary, How
Telecommunications Aid Economic Growth: Evidence from ITU ICT
Development Index (IDI) Top Five Countries for African Region, International
Journal of Business, Economics and Management, 2014, 1 (2): 16-28
Andreessen, M., Why Software Is Eating The World, The Wall Street Journal,
2011, available at
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111903480904576512250915629
460 (accessed 16 February, 2017).
BAOBABAFRICA, Business Growth in Africa Remains Positive Despite

Economic and Socio-Political Headwinds, May 2017, available at
http://baobabafricaonline.com/2017/05/09/business-growth-africa-remains-
positive-despite-economic-socio-political-headwinds/ (accessed 20th July, 2017).
BCG & Bucerius Law School, How Legal Technology Will Change the Business
of Law, January 2016, available at http://www.bucerius-
education.de/fileadmin/content/pdf/studies_publications/Legal_Tech_Report_2
016.pdf (accessed 20th July, 2017).
BusinessWire, Global Legal Services Market Report 2017 Research and
markets, May 4th 2017, available at,
www.businesswire.com/news/home/2017504005920/en/Global-Legal-Services-
Report-2017-(accessed 18th July, 2017).
Casey Morgon, The Legal Industry V. Technology, 2014, available at
https://www.storagecraft.com/blog/download/recover-ability
guides/StorageCraft%20MSP%20Legal%20Ebook.pdf (accessed 20th July,
2017).
Cathy Reisenwitz, 2016 Legal Technology Trends to Watch: Contracts, Artificial
Intelligence, Cloud and Wearables, January 2015 available at
blog.capterra.com/2016-legal-technology-trends-to-watch-contracts-artificial-
intelligence-cloud-and-wearables (accessed 20th July, 2017).
Claire Plarre, BRICSA: The Evolution of Five Legal Markets in Emerging
Economies, available at https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/2-207-
2254?source=relatedcontent&__lrTS=20170608084703490&transitionType=D
efault&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true&bhcp=1 (accessed 20th June,
2017).
D. D. Dodo, The Challenges of the Nigerian Lawyer in the 21st Century Global
Legal Market Place, November 2015, available at
http://dddodo.com/images/THE%20CHALLENGES%20OF%20THE%20NIGE
pg. 33
RIAN%20LAWYER%20IN%20THE%2021ST%20CENTURY%20GLOBAL
(accessed 14th May, 2017).
Daniel Martin Katz, The MIT School of Law? A Perspective on Legal Education
in the 21st Century, University of Ilinois Law Review Vol. 2014, available at
https://illinoislawreview.org/wp-content/ilr-content/articles/2014/5/Katz.pdf
(accessed 24th June, 2017)
Deloitte, Future Trends for Legal Services, Global Research Study, June 2016
available at
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/Legal/dttl-
legal-future-trends-for-legal-services.pdf (accessed 12th July, 2017).
Deloitte, African Trends Going into 2017, February 2017, available at
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/za/Documents/africa/za_5Mar
CS_Africa_Trends_in_2017W.pdf (accessed 19th July, 2017)
Desmond Guobadia, Globalization of Legal Services - What Should Nigeria Do?
2013 available at
http://www.nigerianlawguru.com/articles/practice%20and%20procedure/GLOB
ALISATION%20OF%20LEGAL%20SERVICES.pdf (accessed 20th July, 2017)
Elena Kvochko, Five Ways Technology Can Help the Economy, April 2013,
available at https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2013/04/five-ways-technology-
can-help-the-economy/ (accessed 20th July, 2017).
Erica Palmerini, The Interplay Between Law and Technology, or the Robo Law
Project in Context, 2012 available at
http://www.robolaw.eu/RoboLaw_files/documents/Palmerini_Intro.pdf
(accessed 12th June, 2017).
Francis Ivens, Africa Calling How Rapid Change in the Continent is Shaking
Up Its Legal Market, March 2015, available at
http://www.africalegalnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Africa-
Calling-Legal-Week-Article.pdf (accessed 18th July, 2017)
GeorgeTown Law & Peer Monitor, 2016 Report of the Legal Market, 2016
available at
https://peermonitor.thomsonreuters.com/wpcontent/uploads/2016/01/2016_PM_
GT_Final-Report.pdf (accessed 20th June, 2017).
GeorgeTown Law & Peer Monitor, 2017 Report of the Legal Market, 2017
available at http://legalexecutiveinstitute.com/wp-
content/uploads/2017/01/2017-Report-on-the-State-of-the-Legal-Market.pdf
(accessed 10th July, 2017).
pg. 34
Gillian Triggs, Impact of Globalization of Law and Legal Service on Legal

Education, The University of Sydney, available at
http://curriculum.cald.asn.au/media/uploads/9_5_Internationalisation_of_curric
ulum_Gillian_Triggs.pdf (accessed 12th June, 2017)
Goodnews Daniel, What if the Computer Replaces the Lawyer? 2016 Amazon
Kindle, available at https://www.amazon.com/What-Computer-Replaces-
Lawyer-Exploring-ebook/dp/B01NBJ3HUJ.
Greentarget, 2017 Predictive Legal Trends, available at
http://greentarget.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2017-Legal-Outlook-Final-
Greentarget.pdf (accessed 13th March 2017)
Hove, K (2017) Legal Tech Innovation in Africa: Is Zimbabwe Ready? Available
at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/legal-tech-innovation-africa-zimbabwe-
ready-kuda-hove (accessed 12th July, 2017).
Ilina Rejeva, LegalTech Knowledge: Will Law Schools React on Time? June 2014
available at https://legaltrek.com/blog/2016/06/legaltech-knowledge-will-law-
schools-react-on-time/ (accessed 12th June, 2017).
John McGinnis, Machine V. Lawyer, available at https://www.city-
journal.org/html/machines-v-lawyers-13639.html (accessed 23rd June, 2017).
John Cussons & Nicholas Bruch, Into Africa: Opportunities and Risks in the
African Legal Market, 2013 Ark Group.
Kathleen Kriel, Legal Practice of the Future Discussed at the Practice
Management Conference, October 2015, available at
http://www.derebus.org.za/legal-practice-future-discussed-practice-
management-conference/ (accessed 20th July, 2017).
Leaders League, African Legal Markets: An Exciting Story in the Making, 27th
September, 2016, available at http://www.leadersleague.com/en/news/african-
legal-markets-an-exciting-story-in-the-making (accessed 12th June, 2017).
Lex Mundi, Africa The Great Opportunity, July 2016, available at
https://www.thelawyer.com/issues/11-july-2016/africa-the-great opportunity/
(accessed 12th July, 2017).
Mary Juetten, The Future of Legal Tech: Its not as Scary as Lawyers Think,
2015 available at https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2015/02/19/legal-
tech-or-tech-legal/ (accessed 3rd July, 2017).
Nicole Black, Lawyers, Cloud Computing and Innovation: How Cloud
Computing Facilitates Innovation in the delivery of Legal Services, I/S: A Journal
of Law and Policy for the Information Society, 2014 (accessed 28th March, 2017).
pg. 35
R. Amani Smathers, The 21st Century T-Shaped Lawyer, Volume 40 Number

4, available at
https://www.americanbar.org/publications/law_practice_magazine/2014/july-
august/the-21st-century-t-shaped-lawyer.html (accessed 30th May, 2017).
Richard Susskind, The End of Lawyers: Rethinking the Nature of Legal
Services, (Oxford University,2009)
Sally Kane, Legal Process Outsourcing, February 23, 2017, available at
http://www.thebalance.com/legal-process-outsourcing-Ipo-2164405 (accessed
15th June, 2017).
Sterling Miller, Part 1: Artificial Intelligence and Its Impact on Legal
Technology: To Boldly Go Where No Legal Department Has Gone Before, 2017,
available at http://abovethelaw.com/2017/06/artificial-intelligence-and-its-
impact-on-legal-technology-part-i/ (accessed 14th June, 2017)
Wenjie Chen, David Dollar, & Heiwai Tang, Why is China investing in Africa?
Evidence from the firm level, August 2015, available at
https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Why-is-China-
investing-in-Africa.pdf (accessed 20th July, 2017).
The World Bank, Changes of African Growth: Opportunities, Constraints and
Strategic Directions, 2007, available at
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/AFRICAEXT/Resources/AFR_Growth_Adv
ance_Edition.pdf (accessed 20th July, 2017).
pg. 36

The Impact of Technology On Business Growth in Africa - The Legal Industry A Test Case

Загружено:

Сведения о документе

Оригинальное название

Авторское право

Доступные форматы

Поделиться этим документом

Поделиться или встроить документ

Параметры публикации

Этот документ был вам полезен?

Это неприемлемый материал?

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

The Impact of Technology On Business Growth in Africa - The Legal Industry A Test Case

Загружено:

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON BUSINESS GROWTH IN

AFRICA: THE LEGAL INDUSTRY A TEST CASE

JULY 21, 2017

THE 21ST CENTURY LEGAL PROFESSION ............................................... 4

The 21st Century Law is Moores Law........................................................... 6

The I-Shaped Lawyer V. The T-Shaped Lawyer ......................................... 8

THE AFRICAN LEGAL MARKET................................................................. 9

Technology and Business Growth in the African Legal Industry............. 14

Legal Technologies Adoption .................................................................... 15

Legal Market Liberalization...................................................................... 25

Social Networking ....................................................................................... 27

Mergers & Acquisitions ............................................................................. 27

CHALLENGES OF THE AFRICAN LEGAL INDUSTRY ........................ 29

THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON BUSINESS GROWTH IN

WORKING PAPER: Not for citation or distribution without permission of the

Keywords: Technology, Economy, Business, Growth, Legal Service Market,

THE 21ST CENTURY LEGAL PROFESSION

The 21st Century Law is Moores Law

The I-Shaped Lawyer V. The T-Shaped Lawyer

Figure 1 The T-Shaped Lawyer

THE AFRICAN LEGAL MARKET

Table 1: Projected Annual Average Population Growth 2012 2025

Today, Africas enormous natural resources are already attracting several

As market globalization continues to shape the development of industry sectors

firm that is competently equipped to meet the challenges of globalization in the

Technology and Business Growth in the African Legal Industry

Legal Technologies Adoption

Indeed, on a fundamental level, attorneys are in the business of creating

Figure 2: Legal Technology Framework

second layer or category of legal technologies are referred to as support-processes

Law School Curriculum Update & Continuing Legal Education

Traditional lawyering provides a law school curriculum that is centred only

Legal Data Digitization

Another way to adopt legal technology so as to grow in the business of law is to

Law Office Virtualization

Virtualization simply means putting it up on the cloud.87 In other words, law

Legal Process Outsourcing

According to Sally Kane, legal process outsourcing (LPO) is the exporting of

Legal Market Liberalization

Traditionally, the legal profession, the world over, maintained absolute

Another way to experience growth in the legal industry is by forming alliances,

According to BCG, small, generalist practices face a serious risk of disruption,

Softwarization120 is a tech neologism. It has two meanings in relation to the

CHALLENGES OF THE AFRICAN LEGAL INDUSTRY

Uwakili, Nigerian LegalForms, DIYLaw, Lawvers, Lex Computus Labs, South

BAOBABAFRICA, Business Growth in Africa Remains Positive Despite

Gillian Triggs, Impact of Globalization of Law and Legal Service on Legal

R. Amani Smathers, The 21st Century T-Shaped Lawyer, Volume 40 Number

Вам также может понравиться