I’m still processing all the ideas, inspirations, personalities and enthusiasm of CodeX’s FutureLaw 2015, and probably will keep processing the magic until next year’s event.

One of the delights of the conference was getting to know London-based Karl Chapman, chief executive of Riverview Law.  I got a sneak preview of his wit, charm and insights (and love of soccer and music) when we met up for dinner in New York (at BV Grill, which was phenomenal) before we all headed for California.

There’s been a lot of buzz in Big Law (and Medium Law) about “e-discovery managed services,” where vendors take care of the technology and management of e-discovery, freeing up law firm personnel for more complex tasks. (See, “Calming  E-Discovery Headaches,” Legaltech news.)

At Riverview Law, founded in 2012, Chapman and his colleagues take that concept broader, providing managed legal services for corporate legal teams,  so that they can “focus on higher value strategic and tactical matters.”

Attending the CodeX FutureLaw conference, said Chapman, clarified the challenges and opportunities facing the legal profession. In his recent post, “Walking with the new legal giants,” Chapman admits that he “often felt like an outsider, an intruder” when dealing with the legal market. The legal industry can be very intimidating, with its “aura surrounding the rule of law, law firms and lawyers,” he said. The real and imaginary barriers have been carefully constructed over generations, he mused.

BTW, Chapman “read law” at Birmingham University, but dove into finance and investment management after college. Then he set up AdviserPlus Business Solutions in 2001 (outsourcing HR and other services), before joining Riverview Law.

Nonetheless, Chapman saw an opportunity in legal—”by keeping things simple, and focusing on delivering a great service to customers at a fair price. We were prepared to take calculated risks and back our judgements with capital, energy and experimentation.”

Like many of us, he cites Professor Oliver Goodenough’s superb keynote as a seminal moment, helping us understand “the different technological approaches that the various stakeholders in the legal system have been adopting to respond to these changes.” (Which, btw, are not limited to the legal profession.)

Chapman challenges lawyers’ perception that  the U.K.’s Legal Services Act 2007 and the 2008 economic melt-down are the main triggers of the current problems facing legal. Key drivers are not regulatory and economic events, he said, rather it’s the reality that “customers have, finally, had enough and technology is changing the rules of engagement. Put simply, consumers and businesses have paid too much for legal services and there is a crisis in access to justice.”

The seeds for the coming big storm wasn’t 2007/2008, but “1989 when Tim Berners-Lee created the first web browser,” Chapman declares.  Why? Because the legal profession is not well positioned to manage the challenges “given the partnership model, weak balance sheets and the culture of law firms,” he said. “However, and some might say unluckily, at the same time the legal market has to contend with a technology revolution that is profound and which will impact all sectors of the economy.”

Other sectors, he said, “have come to understand real competition and have had to innovate and become agile to succeed. They have invested heavily in technology and automation, where legal has not. Most legal technology investment has either been on billing systems, so that six minute units can be recorded accurately, or on IT such as legal practice management systems that attempt to make the existing … model more efficient.”

Chapman continues on to discuss the rise of the “knowledge worker” (a buzzword I can’t stand, but I can’t think of a better moniker) and discusses more of the opportunities.  It’s a great read!  Check it out.

As he says in his close, “What a great time to be a technology-led legal services business.”

—Monica Bay is a Fellow at CodeX, a freelance journalist for Bloomberg BNA Big Law Business and a special consultant at The Cowen Group. She is a member of the California bar.  Twitter: @MonicaBay