Executive Director’s Message by Karen A. Gould Future of Law Practice Study VSB PRESIDENT E D W EINER did an excellent job in his August 2015 col-umn of sounding the alarm on perils facing the legal profession, largely because of technological change. 1 Other articles in that edition of Virginia Lawyer dealt with social media and the practice of law by Kellam Parks, 2 “An Interview with Jack W. “JB” Burtch — A Look at Forty Years of Law and Technology” 3 by Neil Talegonkar, and the benefits and risks of legal research technologies by Roger Skalbeck, 4 among other technology articles. My point is that lawyers should understand and appreciate the signifi-cance to which the legal community is impacted by technology and incorpo-rate technology into their practices. A clear sign of this necessity is the pro-posed legal ethics rule change on tech-nological competence pending before the Supreme Court of Virginia. 5 The VSB Future of Law Practice Study Committee met on September 3 to determine the direction of its focus for FY2016. Alternative business struc-tures for law firms had been the com-mittee’s focus the first year, but it has decided to widen its focus to look at other ways legal services are being delivered. Former VSB president Sharon Nelson and her partner and husband John Simek gave the committee a speedy historical perspective on issues facing the profession since the eco-nomic collapse of 2008: law firm lay-offs, suspension of partner draws, mergers, drops in revenue, and the dra-matic decline in the number of lawyers practicing law. In April 2014, a blog reported that there were 44,000 law school graduates but only 21,000 legal jobs. The new reality, Sharon Nelson maintains, is that the “new normal” is lawyers are losing work to non-lawyers, legal services have become a commod-ity, and virtual lawyers are encroaching on the traditional business areas of the solo and small firm lawyers. Clients are refusing to pay for first-and second-year associates on the basis that they don’t want to pay to educate them on how to practice law. Meanwhile, income for the solo lawyer has dropped substantially. No one can argue that technologi-cal changes in the practice of law have been advancing like Genghis Khan and the Mongols, a tide that cannot be turned. Legalzoom © , Avvo © and RocketLawyer © offer legal services through different platforms direct to consumers. To learn more about these services, please refer to their websites: legalzoom.com, avvo.com, and rocketlawyer.com. This three-paragraph description of what was discussed during the Future of Law Practice Study Committee meeting only grazes the surface of some of the topics. Suffice it to say that the committee has a lot on its agenda. Whether any specific rec-ommendations will ensue from its studies is uncertain. Instead, it may be a year of revelations and intense intro-spection. As a state regulatory author-ity, it is certain the Virginia State Bar must stay mindful that its job is to pro-tect the public. Endnotes: 1 http://www.vsb.org/docs /valawyermagazine/vl0815 -president.pdf. 2 http://www.vsb.org/docs /valawyermagazine/vl0815 -antisocial.pdf. 3 http://www.vsb.org/docs /valawyermagazine/vl0815-burtch.pdf. 4 http://www.vsb.org/docs /valawyermagazine/vl0815 -libraries.pdf. 5 http://www.vsb.org/pro-guidelines /index.php/rule_changes/item /amendments-rules-1_1-1_6-112514. VSB TECHSHOW April 25, 2016 Greater Richmond Convention Center Faculty members will include nationally-known veteran ABA TECHSHOW speakers who will offer a full day of legal technology CLE. Registration Fee: $100 per person (includes full day of CLE, Wi-Fi, lunch, and coffee breaks) Registration will open on December 1, 2015. The registration form and agenda will be posted at www.vsb.org/site/events/item/ vsb_techshow_0416. 10 VIRGINIA LAWYER | October 2015 | Vol. 64 www.vsb.org