The Power of Unreasonable Lawyers

One of my favourite books is by John Elkington, 'The Power of Unreasonable People'. It was inspired by a quote by George Bernard Shaw:

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

The hypothesis behind that book is simple: that all real progress involves changing accepted norms and challenging the status quo. There are two types of people. Those that resign themselves to the way things are, and the second category, the dreamers and innovators who start by imagining a different world and then foolishly try and innovate it into being. There was one account in the book about an Indian man who wanted to help 1000’s of the poorest with cataract operations and he came up with a solution…. to start hi-tech laser eye surgery centres, to date he has used those profits to help 400,000 people see again. Wow!

I'll be writing regularly about the future of legal services and how change is upon us. There is currently a divorce between what the law firms want out of clients and what the UK mass public need out of accessible legal services. Is it possible to help everyone access justice even without Legal Aid?

What are the accepted norms in UK legal services that seem too big to change but too small to ignore?