Leadership in the legal profession demands legal knowledge, technological proficiency, and interpersonal skills

Innovation in the legal profession goes far beyond technological adoption, highlighting the crucial role of interpersonal skills and ethical standards. This is one of the main conclusions of the report published by the LawAhead Center on the Legal Profession at IE Law School, "Innovation Beyond Technology. The Crucial Role of Skills in Driving Change in the Legal Profession."

The study challenges the traditional view that equates innovation solely with technological advances and proposes a broader and more inclusive understanding. This pioneering study published by the LawAhead Center on the Legal Profession at IE Law School, chaired by Luis de Carlos, which encourages reflection on the challenges and opportunities facing the legal sector in Spain and globally.

The Center is supported by leading business law firms — CMS Albiñana, Cuatrecasas, Gómez-Acebo & Pombo, Garrigues, Pérez-Llorca, RocaJunyent, Sagardoy Abogados, and Uría Menéndez — as well as companies such as AENA, CaixaBank, Mapfre, Microsoft, and Telefónica. All of them share a commitment to promoting knowledge exchange and fostering research on the transformative impact of legal innovation.

The report is based on a survey of 460 lawyers from seven law firms headquartered in Madrid. Its findings offer insight into how legal professionals perceive the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into legal practice. Overall, lawyers view AI as a useful tool for increasing efficiency and automating routine tasks, noting benefits such as time savings (71%), cost-effectiveness (52%), and process standardization (31%). However, they also express caution regarding its limitations, including risks of inaccuracy (72%), confidentiality and privacy issues (55%), and the potential loss of know-how (32%).

The report also reveals that among interpersonal skills, professionals particularly value those related to communication (40.9%), such as public speaking, active listening, and persuasion; while also identifying communication (63.6%) and empathy (47.2%) as the most vulnerable to the impact of technology in the legal sector.

"AI will not eliminate jobs, but it will transform them," says Antonio Aloisi, professor at IE Law School and co-author of the report.

"AI integration implies efficiency, but it must also imply ethics — and that’s what interpersonal skills guarantee," says Pilar Galeote, professor at IE Law School and co-author of the report.

In this context, the study introduces a new model for professional legal practice: the TIE Lawyering Model, which defines three essential dimensions for 21st-century lawyers — Technological mastery and digital skills (T), Interpersonal skills (I), and Ethics and professional standards (E). From this perspective, legal innovation requires an integrative approach that combines legal knowledge, digital competence, and human skills.

Additionally, the report — authored by Antonio Aloisi and Pilar Galeote, professors at IE Law School, and Nicolás Parra-Herrera, S.J.D. from Harvard Law School — offers concrete recommendations for educational institutions, emphasizing the importance of integrating interpersonal skills training into academic curricula from the early stages, alongside technical and legal content.