The New Lawyer, Second Edition

How Clients Are Transforming the Practice of Law

By Julie Macfarlane

SERIES: Law and Society

UBC Press

The New Lawyer, Second Edition, analyzes the fundamental changes transforming the role of lawyers, the nature of client service, and the basic principles of legal practice. The first edition, published in 2008, quickly became an essential resource for lawyers and legal educators and further established Julie Macfarlane’s reputation as a leading thinker in the areas of access to justice, negotiation, and dispute resolution. It argued that the legal system has shifted away from protracted litigation toward conflict resolution, dispelling the notion of the lawyer as an adversarial “client warrior.” The second edition addresses further developments in the client/lawyer relationship and offers timely analysis of the current trends in legal practice:

the evolving lawyer/client relationship in light of the resources available to clients in the Internet age;
the concept of conflict resolution advocacy;
the impact of increasing numbers of self-represented litigants on the work of lawyers, including consideration of professional ethics when working opposite a party without formal legal training;
new legal technologies, such as outsourcing and remote access, and their impact on legal services and client expectations; and
the latest research and debates over issues of access to justice in Canada and the United States.

Macfarlane stresses the urgent need for a commitment to lawyer/client collaboration and to revised financial structures for legal services if the legal profession is to remain relevant in this rapidly changing environment.

The New Lawyer will be of interest to lawyers, law professors, law students, members of professional regulatory bodies, mediators, justice officials, and anyone who works with lawyers.

RELATED TOPICS: Law

In this fully updated version of The New Lawyer, Professor Macfarlane tackles the key issues of the day. Her intelligent analysis of the legal market, engaging storytelling, and savvy advice provide fascinating and necessary guidance to future generations of lawyers. Andrea Kupfer Schneider, professor of law and director of the Dispute Resolution Program, Marquette University Law School

This updated and expanded edition of The New Lawyer is required reading for law students, lawyers, litigants, judges, and everyone else disillusioned by what the legal system has become. Julie Macfarlane’s key message – that there is a better way, focusing lawyers on dispute resolution advocacy and on the importance of solving people's problems rather than on winning cases – continues to resonate. Lorne Sossin, dean of the Osgoode Hall Law School, York University

Julie Macfarlane is a distinguished professor and professor of law at the University of Windsor and the director of the National Self-Represented Litigants Project. She is the recipient of the David Mundell Medal for Legal Writing (2016), the Institute for Social Policy Understanding Scholar of the Year Award (2012), and the International Academy of Mediators Award of Excellence (2005). She is an active mediator and consultant on conflict resolution interventions, a public speaker, and an advocate for change. Her award-winning blog can be found at http://representingyourselfcanada.com/blog/.

Foreword / Kari Boyle and Jennifer Muller

1 Changes in the Legal Profession and the Emergence of the New Lawyer

2 The Making of a Lawyer: How Professional Identity Develops

3 What Lawyers Believe: Three Key Professional Beliefs

4 Legal Negotiations

5 The New Advocacy

6 The Lawyer/Client Relationship

7 The Shadow of the Law

8 Ethical Challenges for the New Lawyer

9 Where the Action Is: Sites of Change

Epilogue

Notes, Index