Book Review
Review of The Legal
Design Book: Doing Law in
the 21st Century, by Astrid
Kohlmeier and Meera
Klemola
David Durling
d.tel@icloud.com
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sheji.2022.02.002
The Legal Design Book: Doing Law in the 21st Century
by Astrid Kohlmeier and Meera Klemola
Meera Klemola and Astrid Kohlmeier
ISBN: 978-952-94-4725-1
330 pages, hardcover
I will start at the end of this book, where it states “If
you have read the book up to this point, you should
now have a very good overview and a clearer under-
standing of topics such as design, design thinking,
and, of course, legal design in all its dimensions and
implications.”1 After reading this book I certainly
had a better overview of legal design and a clearer
understanding of the several kinds of design practice
that go into making a success of this contemporary
branch of designing. The authors style themselves as
legal design pioneers who aspire “to raise legal design
awareness and bring legal design tools into the hands
of every legal professional.”2
So — what is legal design? The authors define this
as “Design deployed in the field of law to transform
legal products, services, work, systems, business
strategies, ecosystems, and user experience.”3 In
other words, designers working for law practices. It is
tempting to think of this simply as the application of
graphic design in the service of marketing of law prac-
tices, or possibly the beautification of documents, but
this would miss the point entirely. The book clearly sets
out a number of principles for effective legal design,
and backs these up with several user case studies. The
emphasis is on sharing the authors’ practical knowl-
edge of the demonstrated contribution of design
thinking to legal practice.
An important aspect of the authors’ collective
experiences is the difference between lawyer-think
and designer-­think. Indeed, a core part of this book
is the application of design thinking to legal design.
Design thinking is explored in some depth. This is
seen as way of thinking employed by designers — such
as being comfortable with uncertainty, or focusing
on user e­ xperience — that contrasts with the way(s)
lawyers think and are trained. The authors charac-
terize lawyers as having a taste for certainty and being
focused on the past. They operate based on precedent
and exercise precision with words. Designers, they say,
are more comfortable with uncertainty and are future
focused. Though a little simplistic, this does accord
generally with what we know about the mindset of
designers and some other professions.
One substantial difference between the professions
is the question of age and hierarchy, which appear
to be more important in legal practices than among
designers. For example, whereas senior and older
lawyers may be making decisions, it is the younger
lawyers that more readily take risks and innovate.
Mounting commercial pressure compels them to inno-
vate on the services they offer. One example of this is
the significant rise in the number of online and para-
legal businesses offering higher services at lower cost.
For example, imagine an online legal assistance
service that helps people get their ticket refunds
from airline companies. Their website’s landing page
could offer a simple, free online test for ticket refund
­eligibility, with the follow-through picked up for a
fee by the lawyers behind the digital service. Service
providers would be required to have sound legal knowl-
edge and experience, and may offer an unconventional
or innovative extension to legal practice. The authors
think that people may perhaps not realize the extent
of the work and development that goes into solutions
designed for users’ needs. Developing seemingly simple
products often takes a lot more effort than designing
something obviously complex. The service might be so
well designed, and the process so seemingly simple,
that users may not even realize they are being given
expert legal advice.
 172 she ji  The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation  Vol. 8, No. 1, Spring 2022
The authors present, in some detail, a set of ten
philosophies for effective legal design.
• Defer judgement,
• Fail fast,
• Curiosity and creativity,
• The art of pivoting,
• Focus on objectives,
• Multidisciplinary teams,
• A seat at the table for everyone,
• Talk to clients and stakeholders,
• Building to learn, and
• Embrace an open environment.4
For design-trained readers, some sections of the book
read like a first year design text, including an explana-
tion of the Bauhaus and its importance today. I took
issue with several simplistic comments, as times have
moved on, but it must be remembered that this text is
intended more to persuade lawyers of the importance of
engaging design professionals rather than persuading
professional designers to work for lawyers.
In modern legal practice, there are several back-
ground issues of some importance. One is the digital
and online world, and the discomfort that lawyers may
feel — especially the more senior ones — doing busi-
ness in ways they have no training in. Helpfully, the
book provides helpful distinctions among the terms
“digitization,” “digitalization,” and “digital transforma-
tion.” A­ nother background element is perpetuation of
the time-based billing culture in legal practice, which
can stifle efforts to improve efficiency. Some corpo-
rate clients are, however, looking at how to shift away
from billable hours to a model that better suits their
business. Laws change over time, as society reconfig-
ures itself. Many new challenges have led to increased
public awareness of privacy and compliance, and new
laws — the GDPR is but one example of the scope of ac-
tivity in the online and digital legal field. Undoubtedly,
there is much innovation destined for use by lawyers,
clients, and the general public to come.
For anyone seeking a fully referenced book bolstered
by authoritative background research: you may be dis-
appointed. I wanted to follow up on some juicy citations,
but often found the reference partial or the link broken.
While not a research text (and not intended as such),
there are still several weak citations — an actor inter-
viewed about her part in a film may fall short of being an
authority on law (and the link was broken too). There
is a clear difference between authoritative research and
opinion. There are, however, full references toward the
close of the book, and a helpful index. The term “research”
is mentioned frequently, but I felt it was often used collo-
quially to denote “information collection” rather than to
express a professional researcher’s preoccupation with
sampling, forms of bias, impartial analysis, and rigor.
Consequently, there is little to be found on appropriate
research methods, perhaps based on the assumption that
anyone can do research fairly and accurately?
Curiously, for a book by European authors (there is
a German language version, by the way), the language
and examples are curiously USA centric. The book in-
cludes specific North American terms that I had to look
up. Perhaps a little more effort could have been made
to fully address an international audience? ­Perhaps a
course in Suits,5 the American TV show, would be in
order? The book’s official website is worth a visit.6 At
the time of this writing it seems more like a teaser for
the book than a ­supplementary information portal.
However, it may become an important resource in the
future.
There is some evidence internationally that busi-
nesses that engage designers are more successful com-
mercially. And yet the authors have chosen to mention
only the results of a Design Management Institute
investigation demonstrating the value-added success
of ­companies who have designers on the payroll.7 The
authors recognize that a single study is unlikely to per-
suade a reluctant lawyer. More evidence would indeed
have been persuasive.
In sharing their practical knowledge the authors have
helpfully provided six case studies of businesses that have
successfully used legal design in some form. These cases
are diverse and include established legal firms inter-
acting with clients; a university department positioning
a master’s course; a major plane maker wrestling with
different kinds of contracts; and an international bank
undertaking significant revisions to its legal documenta-
tion services.
All of the cases share a common thread: the desire
to understand what users actually need. The experience
of the international bank is most interesting. One of the
issues for lawyers modifying legal documents is main-
taining legal accuracy. The bank’s legal department was
very concerned about the legal impact of modifying its
documentation. Lawyers in this context may become
overly focused on risk mitigation, while non-legal users
 173 Book Review

may be disturbed by new documents that are not legally Korsh, Aaron. Suits. Produced by Universal Cable Produc-
precise. One tool the bank developed applies basic com- tions. Premiered on USA Network. 9 seasons, June 23,
putational linguistic principles to analyze a document’s 2011–­September 25, 2019. https://www.usanetwork.com/
suits.
vocabulary and grammatical characteristics. The bank
also created a system of assets whose guided, reusable
components can be grouped in different ways to devise
any legal document.
Other case studies relate the legal needs of large
established companies, small companies, and startups.
There is the splendid, surprisingly informative example
of an employment contract. On top of containing what
the authors claim is legally accurate information, it is far
from dull or confusing. Much is said about the need for
legal documents to be accurate and understandable — a
goal not always achieved. Still, more and more digital
legal interventions and innovations are cropping up to
help the sector and its audiences. An important aspect
of user-­centered design implementation is assessing the
success of the thing in use, by users, to learn what can be
learned about how development of a product or service
ought to proceed.
No doubt the field of legal design will develop ­further
but this book represents a healthy start. As stated at the
beginning of this review, reading this book has provided an
overview of legal design and a clearer understanding of the
several kinds of design skills that go into making a success
of this newly defined branch of designing. Did I enjoy
reading it? Yes. Would I re­commend it to others? Yes.

Notes

1 Astrid Kohlmeier and Meera Klemola, The Legal Design Book:

Doing Law in the 21st Century (Meera Klemola and Astrid
Kohlmeier, 2021), 282.
2 Ibid., 4.
3 Ibid., 6.
4 Ibid., 14.
5 Aaron Korsh, Suits, produced by Universal Cable Produc-
tions, premiered on USA Network, 9 seasons, June 23, 2011–
September 25, 2019, https://www.usanetwork.com/suits.
6 See “The Legal Design Book,” accessed February 28, 2022,
https://legaldesign-book.com/.
7 Kohlmeier and Klemola, The Legal Design Book, 264–65.

References

Kohlmeier, Astrid, and Meera Klemola. The Legal Design Book:

Doing Law in the 21st Century. Meera Klemola and Astrid
Kohlmeier, 2021.