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Computers are replacing many functions once performed by lawyers, especially young lawyers who have traditionally done the case grunt work. NSW Chief Justice Tom Bathurst told an Australian Bar Association meeting in July that the future may include not just "paperless courts, but people-less courts, too". While Bathurst did not predict lawyers would become extinct, he warned: "The reality is that technology, either directly or indirectly, will cut into many areas of barristers' work." It is a challenge major law schools are already addressing with an eye to preparing students for an avalanche of technological change whose long-term impact can be hard to assess. As Lesley Hitchens, Dean of Law at UTS, says: "You just can't predict how things will turn out", given rapid technological advancement and its application to the profession. Hitchens says a key element of UTS law is to produce students with resilience and an ability to adapt, and to show them that change need not necessarily be terrifying. "We want them to see change not as a negative thing - but also as an opportunity." Technology makes it easier for lawyers to work remotely, to serve clients online, to build a more individual and independent career and to tap into the legal profession globally in an increasingly borderless world. Dominic Woolrych, legal product manager at Lawpath, a pioneering Australian online provider, says: "Technology is going to have a huge affect. Law has essentially been a time-based profession and with technology it's going to move to a quality-based or outcome-based profession." Law educators are unanimous: the profession has increasingly become a borderless world and law students must be prepared to compete in a jobs marketplace that reaches beyond their own city, or even country. Cameron Stewart, Pro Dean at Sydney Law School, advises students contemplating graduation at the end of this decade: "It's going to be a world where you still really need to concentrate on your core skills and then be prepared for a whole new range of possibilities – internationally, globally, the walls are breaking down. You've got to be competitive internationally. You do that by understanding the principles of good lawyering.
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