However, these non-traditional capabilities haven’t (until recently) been taught in law schools or colleges, which is concerning for lawyers who wish to future-proof their careers.

It may not be that silly for legal practitioners to think more like a Kardashian, at least in some respects.

After all, having self-made a multimillion-dollar empire with 143 million followers on Instagram, Kim Kardashian arguably knows a thing or two about product development, understanding what her users want, and adapting to changing circumstances.

Whether she can also master the law ultimately will be determined by the Californian bar exam, but her communication, business management and service delivery skills are the same ones legal professionals need for their future.

For example, lawyers and their clients routinely walk away with a different understanding of the same meeting – and that’s why poor communication is one of the most frequent complaints lodged at the Office of the Legal Services Commissioner against NSW lawyers.

And I pity the fool who thinks a software engineer, a business development manager and a lawyer will intuitively understand each other when trying to build a client-facing chat-bot.

For some lawyers, the journey will be a hard one. It will challenge them to the core and raise genuine concerns about the demise of their profession when they see new pseudo-legal job titles such as legal project managers, techno-legals and lean process consultants.

They may view this as a dangerous fad which, as one practitioner summarised, could devalue their unique experience and judgment, curtail their discretion, reduce their hereto unchallenged authority and decrease their compensation.


It doesn’t help that many of the qualities that make for a "good" traditional lawyer – low levels of trust, high levels of scepticism and risk aversion, and a competitive tendency for perfectionism – are at odds with the traits required to sustain high-performing and innovative teams.

The challenge and opportunity, for those lawyers who don’t want to be a victim of change, is to step outside the legal vertical and expand their awareness of other disciplines. A good starting point is becoming a more empathetic technical communicator.

As for Kim Kardashian’s future as a lawyer, only time will tell.

Putting all the celebrity shenanigans aside, let’s not forget that she is also a daughter of the late Robert Kardashian, who shot to fame as OJ Simpson's defence attorney during his 1995 murder trial. She may well have genetics on her side.

Peter Dombkins is a UNSW adjunct associate professor and the head of legal transformation and legal project management at Gilbert + Tobin, He will be part of a panel discussion at the NSW Law Society's Future of Law and Innovation in the Legal Profession Conference in Sydney on July 25.