Episode 209: Legal GenAI Conversations Series: The Lawyerless Law Firm – Myth or Reality in 2030?

On 7 May 2025, in the fourth podcast in CLI's Legal GenAI Conversations Series Terri Mottershead, Executive Director of the Centre for Legal Innovation was joined by three amazing guests to discuss The Lawyerless Law Firm – Myth or Reality in 2030? Miriam Rihani, Head of Transformation and Legal Operations (OGC), PwC Australia Laura Vickers, Founding Director, Nest Legal Dominic Woolrych, CEO and Co-Founder, Lawpath Topics covered in this session included: Whether or not we are close – technologically, culturally, and commercially - to a truly lawyerless law firm and what key barriers stand in the way If we are likely to see lawyerless business models emerge in certain sizes of practices or areas of practice, while others remain lawyer-led If the promise of broader access to justice via AI can be reconciled with the safeguards lawyers have traditionally provided If the future of legal practice is less about lawyering, more about tech, or a complete redefinition of legal roles Where human lawyers can add the most irreplaceable value in a tech-enabled legal system Who should build and enforce the guardrails in a world where legal professionals are integrally intertwined with the tech and, how we guard against self-interest If the lawyerless law firm will be a positive or negative addition to the legal ecosystem You'll find details about the other topics we'll be discussing in this series here. If you would prefer to watch rather than listen to this episode, you'll find the video in our CLI-Collaborate (CLIC) free Resource Hub here.  Don't forget to join CLI's free Legal Generative AI Community here – it's a lightly curated daily news feed on all things legal GenAI.