Macro and micro sustainability in innovation in the legal services sector and the management of paralegals

Shephard, Catherine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2805-4943 (2016) Macro and micro sustainability in innovation in the legal services sector and the management of paralegals. In: 28th Annual Conference of the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy, 03 November 2016 - 05 November 2016, Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

The Legal Education and Training Review Report was published in June 2013 and the market is experiencing ‘a time of unprecedented change with consumer demands, technology and the regulatory system fundamentally changing the way that legal services are delivered’ (Solicitors Regulation Authority, 2013). One essential feature of a future framework will be the nature of the management task to be undertaken by the providers of legal services. There is then the issue of how best to prepare the managers for their role. This paper seeks to draw on the experience of management in the public sector, in particular the further education and health sectors, to inform the current debate on management of paraprofessionals in the legal services sector. The paper posits the theory that this is not an issue faced only by lawyers; that other sectors of the economy have experienced an equally significant change. It examines the management challenge faced in both the public and private sectors to explore whether there is a determinable ‘shared agenda’ common across those sectors. This shared agenda will then be analysed, to allow the paper to conclude by identifying those issues which resonate particularly with the challenges faced by those who work and manage within the rapidly changing legal services market, and to identify the further opportunities for research that might facilitate management decisions in that sector. From a sustainability point of view, it explores how such innovation in the sector can be managed in a way which will prove most effective at a macro level; so that it is good for the sector, and society. At a micro level, it explores how to manage this change in a manner which will ultimately benefit all stakeholders, including the professionals, paraprofessionals and their clients.