Fresh out of law school, Generation Z are entering the legal profession with a new set of expectations and a new set of behaviours. Having grown up in a world where technology is at their fingertips, these young lawyers are forward-thinking, ambitious, not afraid of challenging the status quo and key to the adoption of legal tech. But the real question is: are law firms and organisations ready for the next generation of lawyers?

Who are Generation Z?

Pew Research Center defines Generation Z as the group of individuals born after 1997. As of next year, Gen-Zeders will make up 20% of the workforce. Understanding what makes Generation Z ‘tick’ is vital not only for the attraction and retention of the best and brightest talent, but also for the survival of the legal industry.

Gen Z have been raised from a young age with access to high-speed internet, instant communication and a constant stream of information. They are free-thinking, ambitious, and desperately crave a work-life balance that will allow them to pursue their ambitions, whilst also facilitating efficient and effective working practices. ‘Business as usual’ will simply not make the cut.

Embracing generational differences

But, until recently, junior lawyers have been faced with endless hours of repetitive, manual processes. This has not only led to boredom, low levels of engagement and a high staff turnover, but the unforgiving hours dedicated to this type of work can lead to stress, exhaustion and ultimately, legal burnout. Not only are law firms and organisations in jeopardy of losing the most creative thinkers, but they also risk retaining only the most resilient people.

Luminance is a real solution to this problem. For the very first time, lawyers have access to a technology which accelerates document review with little-to-no set-up or training required. This is all due to Luminance’s core technology, ‘LITE’ (Legal Inference Transformation Engine), which harnesses ground-breaking machine learning to read and understand legal documents in any language, and relating to any jurisdiction, at speeds and in volumes that far surpasses human capacity. This is then displayed intuitively and logically on an easy-to-use interface, and as the advisor interacts with the platform, the process accelerates even further. For our digital natives, this is a no brainer.

LITE operates as a seamless extension of our young lawyers’ reviews, allowing them to get to the crux of the deals and prove themselves in a competitive and fast-paced legal industry, all with the confidence that nothing has slipped through the cracks. By reducing the grunt work overwhelming young lawyers, Luminance allows them to free up their time to focus on more complex, higher-value work which puts to use the skills and knowledge they have honed during their legal education and training. As a result, junior lawyers are learning faster, and better, with a clearer mind as the pressure to spend huge swathes of overtime on manual document review is eradicated.

Future-proofing firms and organisations

Every law firm and organisation takes on young lawyers in the hope they will continue to rise through the senior ranks. Embracing legal technology and the know-how of Gen Z will enable law firms and organisations to flourish, now and in the future. The legal industry needs to keep up the pace of change because Generation Z has arrived, and with them, the new dawn of legal technology.