At a summit themed, ‘Legal & Tech Network Summit 2019’ held at the Commerce House of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), stakeholders in the legal and tech spaces discussed how lawyers could leverage technology for effective services to clients.
Tech players urged lawyers to embrace technology without any fear of it taking over their jobs in the nearest future.
Analysts stressed the need to stay abreast with innovations in the tech space to boost efficiency and ensure better service delivery to clients.
The legal space is one that has begun experiencing technological disruptions around the world where law firms now utilise the services of artificial intelligence (AIs) for faster and more reliable services to their customers. This, hence, raises concerns on what the future holds for Nigerian lawyers.
Coupled with this are the issues Nigerian businesses face in dealing with regulators prior and during the launching of their businesses and products.
“Technology moves faster than regulations, and there lies the issue that most young people face with regulators,” Odun Eweniyi, vice president and co-founder of Piggyvest, an online savings platform, said while speaking on ‘Growth and Evolution of Technology: Lessons for Techpreneurs and the Role of Lawyers’.
Amongst many fast-evolving technologically driven operations are the Fintech companies. Every month, at least a Fintech company is birthed in Nigeria. Then the question lies, how fast the CBN can keep up with this pace as it relates to investment, banking, credit creation and the like.
“Nigeria currently lacks the regulatory signboard to financial technology services. The best you can do right now is a microfinance license none of which covers the breadth that the Fintech companies do,” Eweniyi clarified further.
According to Eweniyi, lawyers can only come to the rescue of young and evolving companies which are technologically driven and facing regulatory challenges, when they also embrace and stay well-informed on technological innovations.
Also pointed out that there is need to move from logically formed regulations to data driven segmented regulations. Lawyers could leverage on available data bases of regulations and cases to make well informed decisions and forecast future possibilities with accuracy, analysts add.
DAVID IBIDAPO
