Greetings from Kazan, a city about the size of the Liverpool City Region and situated about 650 miles east of Moscow. 

I have been here presenting a keynote speech on eSystems Engineering - I know that does seem a little unlikely for a lawyer! But my attendance has been interesting on several levels, at least for me. 

Kazan is an old, established city founded upon the influence of Islam and, in particular, Islamic education and science. It embraced Islam in the 9th century and then invited educators from Baghdad to teach more about the faith and its ideas. Kazan Federal University has more than 40,000 students, is one of the top universities in Russia and among the top 200 in the world. It has a particular reputation in Mathematics and Applied Science. It is one of the most sophisticated and well-educated regions in Russia. It has a long history of support for the arts, music and culture and more recently, sport. In fact, England played here in the World Cup.

The universities most famous alumni is Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known by his alias, Lenin. I was privileged enough to make my presentation in the hall where he studied. 

It has a Kremlin (an old walled city) complete with a mosque and cathedral, emphasising the fact that this is a place where different faiths and cultures can rub along contentedly and without tension. It is also a World Heritage Site, like Liverpool waterfront. On one side is the Volga and on the other, a series of lakes and watercourses making it a very attractive location. It is a place which seems at ease with itself, which is more than I can say of my own nation at this time. 

All the delegates to the conferences, from every continent in the world, were made to feel very welcome. 

My presentation was on the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the delivery of legal services. I have a friend in Northern Ireland who lives in a farming area and when I told him I was attending an AI conference he asked me what on earth I knew about Artificial Insemination! (Oh, the perils of acronyms). I admitted not much, and neither do I know much about Artificial Intelligence, but I can see the way the world is moving. It is amazing to think that 65% of children entering primary school today will do jobs that do not yet exist.

When I look back on my own career, the changes have been staggering! I have lived through communications, data and information revolution, but this will be nothing compared to the technological revolution about to hit the professional services sector.

Having done the talk, I do wonder about what we are teaching those entering the law today. Yes, lawyers need to be able to apply the law to solve life's problems, but knowledge of the law is now available to anyone making a long-tail Google search. The legal world will belong to those who can use technology to provide smart solutions for clients, using the apparatus of the legal system.

I asked one of the academics why joint law-technology degrees were not being created and he said that such degrees caused dissension between departments who wanted to control curricular. 

Academics sound just about as backwards looking as lawyers. Richard Susskind, in his second edition to his book 'The Future of Lawyers', notes in the foreword that more Chinese lawyers have bought the first edition than English lawyers. The fact is that we all need to wake up and smell the coffee - which by the way, is pretty good out here in Kazan!