Books

Lettera43: Extract from “Lex Machine” by Nicola Di Molfetta, Jan. 29^th, 2020

Innovation and legal profession: an extract from “Lex Machine”
The new book written by Nicola Di Molfetta is an investigation on changes concerning the consultancy for business law affairs.
Innovation, technology and legal services market. Lex Machine, the new book written by Nicola Di molfetta– journalist, editor-in-chief of MAG and group editor in-chief of LC Publishing – is an inquiry into the process of change taking place in the legal consulting industry and, more generally, of the legal profession. The book (edited by LC Publishing and distributed by Mondadori) is addressed to those who try to understand which direction to take in this new competitive horizon in order to conquer (or preserve) the leadership. Lettera43.it has published an extract.

La Repubblica – Affari Finanza: “Lawyers: low cost and fast time in order to survive”, Jan. 6^th, 2020

“The book” by Marco Panara

There are 243,000 lawyers in Italy. Despite the overabundance the number continues to grow, fortunately less than in the past, accentuating a competition that, together with the crisis, has reduced their incomes. The average income of the category is 38 thousand 500 euros per year, the under thirty do not reach 12 thousand and must exceed fifty years in order to reach fifty thousand. However, this does not say everything. It is good for those who work in big firms, and especially those who do business. Income is not the only problem, after a hundred years the profession has changed, the market asks for it and technology allows it. Many functions are now digitized, many performances have become standardized products that can be purchased on a platform: low cost has also arrived in the world of law. Customers demand high quality, fast time and low costs and firms must organize themselves as companies. Those who do not adapt risk marginalization.

Milano Finanza: “Lawyers won’t be wiped out by algorithms”, Dec. 31th, 2019

Summary

Lex Machine is the new book written by Nicola Di Molfetta, journalist, editor of MAG and group editor inchief of LC Publishing (editor company of the portals legalcommunity.it, Financecommunity.it etc.). It consists in a journalistic investigation into the ongoing change in the field of business legal advice and, more generally, of the legal profession.

This is the first book that tells this phenomenon from an Italian perspective. Until now, in fact, the literature available on the subject has been predominantly of Anglo-Saxon origin and therefore not able to fully explain the impact that the digital transformation of the legal activity is destined to have in Italy. Di Molfetta investigates the phenomenon from Milan, the heart of the national legal business, by putting together the pieces of an extremely complex mosaic, by answering all the questions that operators and market observers are asking at this very delicate stage. The first and most relevant of all concerns the fate of the category: will a world be possible without lawyers or in which lawyers will be totally replaced by software and algorithms? Di Molfetta clearly says that hypothesizing a replacement of all the professionals by robots is not only premature but highly unlikely. Only the organization of the market and the studies will change and they will be made up by men, machines and processes.

Il Sole 24 Ore: “The tech challenge of lawyers between uncertainty and opportunity“, Dec. 2nd, 2019

Summary – Il Sole 24 Ore published the news on the publication of the second book of Nicola Di Molfetta by LC Publishing Group.

Law firms are struggling with technological innovation, which forces lawyers to be always updated. It is the era of the so-called new law, induced, among other things, by the creation of the first legal tech start-ups, by the entry of artificial intelligence in the studies, by different methods of managing the activity of the studies, where new professional figures such as innovation managers, lawyer-coders, psychologists and general counsel have appeared.

All this has been based on traditional competences, which for lawyers are the study of law and legal aid, but with new perspectives. Legal tech, in fact, is becoming an increasingly important industry, able to attract important investments and to modify the competitive scenario of the market. A horizon that in Italy is beginning to glimpse, while abroad there are already law firms that recognize innovation as a strategic priority.

How to combine tradition and technological innovation? How could we be prepared for it? These are some of the questions answered by Nicola Di Molfetta in his book “Lex machine. Innovation, technology and lawyers: how the market changes and what we have to know to succeed“.

andriaviva.it: “Lex Machine”, the inquiry of the journalist Nicola Di Molfetta from Andria, Jan. 14th 2020

Innovation, technology and legal services market. Lex Machine, the new book written by Nicola Di Molfetta, journalist, director of MAG and group editor in-chief of LC Publishing (Legalcommunity, Financecommunity etc.) is a journalistic inquiry about the process of change taking place within the field of business law consultance and more generally of the legal profession. This is the first book that tells the phenomenon of innovation applied to the profession from an Italian perspective, as the literature available on the subject is predominantly of Anglo-Saxon origin. Di Molfetta investigates the phenomenon from Milan, the heart of the Italian legal business and answers to all the questions that operators and market observers are asking at this very delicate stage. The work is full of quotes and cases told in detail and takes into account the role played by all the actors involved in this scenario: law firms, lawyers, but also the legal tech start-ups and the big fours. Lex Machine is a useful tool to finally begin to give practical meaning to the long series of neologisms that are overwhelming the market of legal services and contribute to the disorientation of a lot of professionals struggling with change. It is a compass for those who want to orient themselves in the new competitive scenario and to understand in which way to go in order to conquer (or to conserve) the leadership.

• Il Foglio “BUSINESS LAWYERS, THE GREAT BUSINESS OF BUSINESS FACILITATORS” – Gianluca Ferraris, 21^st Dec. 2017 

Extract:

• Press review “Cassa forense” – Dec. 19^th, 2017

Extract – from the article written by Giovanni Negri for Il Sole 24 Ore, Dec. 12^th, 2017

(…) “In 2007, the market already counted more than 5,000 professionals at the first hundred business firms active in Italy. 10 years later, more than 6,000 are active only in the first 50 professional associations engaged in this sector. In the same period of time, there were about 700 partners of these studies who changed careers, legitimising the phenomenon of “professional divorces” once considered a cause of scandal within the legal class and making it, in the long run, a custom. Only in the last five years of the decade that we are observing, that is between 2012 and 2016, it is estimated that these side passages have moved more than 400 million turnover.
There is therefore great effervescence and difficulty in identifying a single model of professional study, when, after the competition law, there is also a cautious entry of the capital shareholder. The book drops many veils and traces the identikit of what in the end remains still a stranger (because, rightly asks Di Molfetta, everyone knows what a bank is, but not a business lawyer?): still in 2015 44% of the companies with a turnover of more than 50 million, did not use a lawyer, for any reason, not even for legal one.”

• Corriere della Sera – “BUSINESS LAWYERS REVOLVING DOORS” – Isidoro Trovato, Dec. 18^th, 2017

Extract:

• Il Sole 24 Ore – “IF LEGAL STUDIOS CHANGE SKIN” – Giovanni Negri, Dec. 12^th, 2017.

• Lettera 43 – “2006-2016 Avvocati d’Affari” Anticipation of the Book” – Dec. 2^nd, 2017

Extract:

“Lettera43.it publishes an extract on “The derivation of consultants”. In his book Nicola Di Molfetta tells stories and secrets of the protagonists who in 10 years have revolutionized a sector.
Lettera43.it publishes an anticipation of the book 2006-2016 Business lawyers: secrets, stories, protagonists. The chapter is entitled “The drift of consultants” and tells in time laps 10 years of armchair revolutions that have changed the geography of this sector.” (continues…)