What is EPII?
| EPIIgram
EPIIgram, the electronic newsletter of the Emerging Professional Issues Initiative, is published monthly and e-mailed to CBA members. If you are a CBA member and would like to receive EPIIgram by e-mail, contact us at EPII@cba.org. Current EPII Projects |
The CBA's Emerging Professional Issues Initiative (EPII) developed out of the profession's need for an advocate on emerging professional issues and Canadian lawyers' need to survive and prosper in the legal marketplace. The purpose of the initiative is to permit the CBA to position itself on trends in professional practice that may affect the future of the legal profession and the delivery of legal services.
EPII conducts an ongoing review of social and economic trends and assesses the impact of those trends on Canadian lawyers. EPII ensures that the voice of the Canadian legal profession is heard by policymakers and gives CBA members the tools they need to successfully compete in the changing legal marketplace.
Trends Facing the Legal Profession
A review of "futures" literature indicates that three key trends challenge the future of the legal profession:
- Globalization of markets and the internationalization of trade in services increases potential markets for lawyers, while at the same time reducing traditional protective barriers that, at a minimum, guaranteed to the legal community territorial exclusivity over legal markets. A parallel liberalization in international recognition of professionals further broadens the pool of who can deliver legal services.
- The digital revolution has served as the great equalizer among lawyers and among lawyers and their clients. The digital society demands of lawyers greater flexibility and adaptability in areas of legal practice and in delivery of legal services. Clients are more sophisticated and their expectations of immediate, accessible and efficient service require lawyers to reassess the nature of their client relationships.
- The decline in deference to authority underlies current lawyer-client relationships. Lawyers are under pressure to add value and to demonstrate that value to their clients. This requires innovation in how legal services are delivered and how lawyers are remunerated for those services. In a buyer's market for legal services, how the service is delivered is as important as what the service is.
Money, markets and modernized relationships will drive the future of the legal profession.
Lawyers need to think BIG when thinking about markets, and CLOSE when thinking about client relationships.
