In an interview with litigator-turned-presenter James D. Zirin, Richard Susskind spoke of how his mid-1990s suggestions that lawyers would use email were rubbished and silenced by the settled legal establishment. Backing-up the discussion a bit, Richard Susskind explained the context in this way:
“I look at the tax profession. I look at the way they handle tax risk, the way they identify, control, manage, hedge, monitor tax risk: they use sophisticated tools and techniques to help clients, not simply resolve their problems, but say, on the horizon are 4 problems you’re likely to face and here’s how you can manage and control these risks."James D. Zirin then breached the email-hysteria topic. He asked Susskind:
"You’ve been working in this area for about 30 years. When you got started there was considerable resistance at the English Bar to your ideas, isn’t that true – that the Law Society (what we in the US call the American Bar Association) didn’t want you to speak in public?”
