Colloquium on The Legal Profession in the Age of COVID-19:The Future of Litigation & Law Firms

THE LEGAL PRACTITIONERS' COLLOQUIUM on The Legal Profession in the Age of COVID-19:The Future of Litigation & Law Firms

Introduction

COVID-19 is no more just a health crisis. While human lives may be the highest price paid, the world is now spiralling into a state of an economic and humanitarian crisis. Unequal access to healthcare, Reverse migration, Xenophobia, Domestic Violence, Racism, Job Losses, Migrant Workers' Crisis, are some of the many side-effects of this pandemic. In times of this chaos, the legal and judicial systems play a very important role in avoiding the pandemic from reaching apocalyptic dimensions. To protect and even strengthen our legal and constitutional rights, while we are to some extent being asked to temporarily suspend them in some cases due to the required measures of lockdown, makes the role of courts, litigation and even law firms even more complex in the current context. Not only are we faced with a broader demand for justice, but also faced with the challenges of operationalising justice in the time of quarantine, lockdown and indeed the gradual unlocking of our society.

As social distancing has become the new norm, courtrooms across the world have resorted to remote hearings, including our very own Indian Judiciary. With the very esteemed three-judge bench, which recently issued guidelines to transition to virtual courtrooms, the India legal system is indeed witnessing a revolution of sorts. But this is obviously very limiting with little or no impact at the lower levels of justice delivery mechanisms. Even Law firms have reinvented their machinery to work from home using technology-based solutions. COVID19 is indeed going to be a redefining moment for legal professionals to innovate to not just cater to the considerable strain on the legal system, but also embrace technology to expedite the delivery of justice. Our world just became more VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) than ever before, posing questions on the role and future of the legal profession in the age of COVID.

This colloquium, therefore, sought to address some important questions to define the future of litigation and law firms from the leading legal minds of India and beyond.

This webinar was organised by Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) of O.P. Jindal Global University. The session was moderated by Prof. (Dr.) C Raj Kumar, Founding Vice-Chancellor, OP Jindal Global University & Dean Jindal Global Law School.

The distinguished panellists at the session included;

Ms. R.V. Anuradha
Partner
Clarus Law Associates

Ms. Poorvi Chothani, Esq.
Managing Partner
Lawquest

Mr. Shyam Divan
Senior Advocate
Supreme Court of India

Mr. Arvind Nayar
Senior Advocate & Arbitrator at Courts & Tribunals
New Delhi

Mr. Ritin Rai
Senior Advocate
Supreme Court of India

[MrRaoDSR]

Excellent! Informative and educational. Thanks.