As we celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Global Technology Summit, Victoria Lee, Partner and Global Co-Chair, Technology Sector, DLA Piper, shares her thoughts on the changes in technology and legal developments over the past decade.
In October 2008, at the time of the first DLA Piper Tech Summit, the world was a very different place. The very first iPhone had been out for just over a year. Bitcoin had been released that January and was being sold for about half a cent. The Great Recession was just beginning, and the app economy was still in its infancy.
Today, we're experiencing the longest bull market in US history in tandem with what many are calling the 4th Industrial Revolution. Innovation is happening at an exponential pace. This rapid change in the technological ecosystem and the digitization of processes has impacted society in both ordinary and profound ways.
For businesses, innovation has become an imperative. Organizations are unrelentingly challenged by consumers, culture and financial stakeholders to evolve for the sake of their bottom lines and longevity as brands. In this environment, regulation is often playing catch-up. This is significant for attorneys, who now face novel legal challenges in the face of an unclear legal framework or legal precedent.
After 10 years of bringing together technology experts, in-house counsel and DLA Piper's own myriad of lawyers at the Tech Summit, I've witnessed a number of trends impacting our practice. Here are three major implications that have emerged from this decade of unprecedented innovation.
1. Exponential Innovation, Localized Regulation
Catalyzed by digital technologies, innovation now occurs at an exponential rather than a linear pace. Lawyers are often laying down the legal track while the train is in motion. With tech being built, scaled and commercialized as quickly as it is today, there is little to no time for universal agreement on how it should be federally regulated – it's addressed "on the fly", sometimes retroactively and with legal maneuvering and litigation, and often at the regional or local level.
At DLA Piper's 2008 Tech Summit, for example, we discussed new business models such as the emerging on-demand economy. Over the past decade, we've seen the regulatory environment around ride-sharing vary drastically from city to city and from year to year. In some cases, innovation has refused to cede to law, and law has capitulated. Cities like Dallas have made these innovations more accessible, whereas citizens and local governments in London and Las Vegas have mounted vehement opposition. Today's legal counsel must understand that local culture, sentiment and regulations are having a bigger impact on global businesses than ever before, whether the touchpoint is infrastructure, data privacy or safety of some kind. As technology goes to market with increasing speed and scale, there is, and will be, an attendant range of issues and ethics to face, in many if not all of the jurisdictions affected by the changes.
2. Consumer-Driven Brand Ethics
Modern consumers wear their hearts on their wallets, wielding their purchasing power as a political tool to influence brands to act in an ethical manner. Surveys show that out of 14,000 consumers from 14 countries, 57 percent will buy or boycott based on a brand's position on social or political issues.
As business leaders, general counsel and regulators discuss the legal ramifications around innovations like artificial intelligence, blockchain and big data at this year's Tech Summit, then, it is important to keep in mind that ethical implementation of these technologies is crucial for the vitality of a brand. Businesses face a world in which they are being asked to maintain a competitive edge through the use of the latest and greatest tools, while also behaving in an informed, ethical manner − even beyond what the law prescribes.
How an organization implements an innovation can have profound residual effects on its reputation, and it is paramount as legal counsel that we not only help our clients navigate the complex regulatory environment but do so in a way that protects them in the court of public opinion.
3. The Future of Work, Defined by the Worker
Where work happens, how work happens, and even why work happens is fundamentally different today compared to ten years ago. In the midst of the Great Recession, stable jobs had become commodities. Now, as the gig economy booms, as Baby Boomers retire at a rapid rate and as Millennials take over as the largest generation in the labor force amid a talent shortage, employees – rather than the organizations that employ them – are shaping the future of work. The individual employee now has the ability to define the future of the economy.
This development is having profound effects for the legal profession. Businesses require help navigating the fiscal effects of this economic model as well as the new social standards for appropriate behavior in the workplace, in the wake of #MeToo.
Legal counsel played a vital role in business in 2008 and, for the foreseeable future, that will remain true. It's up to us to be one step ahead, so that our clients don't fall behind.