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Lim Chee Wee, one of the panellists.

“Some of our clients are illiterate... They don’t use IT”, commented Hema, delegate from the Perak Bar and “... some lawyers don’t even have e-mail”, responded Rizal, delegate from Kelantan.

Rizal also added that “we don’t work long hours” to comments by KL young lawyers that they had to instantaneously attend to client’s/partner’s demands at all hours - even at 11pm and even on their day off.

So, is the issue of IT only limited to the lawyers from KL? Perhaps for now, yes, responded panellist, Lim Chee Wee, but with the changing landscape of technology, even the illiterate client would inevitably have an educated and IT savvy child. The impact of IT would therefore eventually trickle down to all parts of Malaysia and lawyers have to be prepared to face this.

At the 3rd Young Lawyer’s Convention 2008, session 3 on ‘IT: How does it make us mighty?’ panellists and participants discussed the impact of IT on the daily lives of lawyers. On the one hand, information was at a lawyer’s finger-tips; communication and interaction with clients and colleagues improved; and research abilities widened through countless on-line legal research engines.

However, IT has blurred the divide between work and personal life commented panellist, Brendan Navin Siva. KL lawyers are expected to attend to client’s queries late into the night; they have to be ‘on-call’ 24/7 but are yet expected to work within the traditional work regime and mind-set, namely they still have to clock in by 9am.

He added that though the working environment had progressively changed, the legal profession has not adapted or changed the way other industries have. For example, corporate organisations have already responded to this changing climate by providing their employees with flexible working schemes. Employees who have worked tirelessly over the weekend to finish a project are automatically given 2 days off to rest. As a result, the legal profession has lost its talented lawyers who want flexible working schemes to industries that have adapted and responded.

Chee Wee agreed that flexible working hours are being sought by employees. He quoted the example of working women. The number of women in the legal work-force has increased tremendously. “50% of the lawyers and partners in my firm are women.

"The truth of the matter is that we have no choice but to change if we want to retain our talent”, said Chee Wee.

He however added that ‘trust’ was an essential element in an employer’s decision whether to grant an employee flexible working hours or to work from home. If the employer places their trust in an employee then such trust should be reciprocated with proper performance by the employee.

At this point, the moderator Gavin Tang interjected that the blurring between work and personal life goes both ways – employees do also spend time in the office “working” on personal matters like MSN Chat and Facebook.

So, are employers today prepared to put in place flexible working hours, queried Chair of the NYLC Committee, Edmund Bon? And how is the Bar Council reacting to these issues? As employers, it appears that none of the panellists had yet to put in place flexible working schemes for employees though they recognised the serious need for it. Chee Wee commented that the Bar Council can play the role of highlighting the future impact of IT to the legal profession but at the end of the day, it is up to each firm to decide when and how they react.

When it came to the blurring of work and personal life, panelist, Nizam Bashir, argued that it is up to the individual lawyers to set their boundaries. Young lawyers have to learn how to say to their employers, “No – I can’t give the quality of work you want in the short response time set”. Nizam also queried that perhaps IT was not the issue but rather whether law firms were taking on more work than they could handle. “Perhaps, such firms should revamp the way in which the firm takes in work?”, added Nizam.

At the end of the day, the panellists and most of the participants agreed that the extent of the impact of IT depends on each individual lawyer’s perspective. Lawyers can either utilise IT to their advantage or allow it to intrude into their personal life. It is up to a lawyer to exploit the vast potential benefits but not lose control of their own lives. It is essentially a question of whether a lawyer allows IT to empower or enslave them.

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