Technological conservatism

Someone asked question in class yesterday (Monday) about the possibility of clients sharing legal work as Susskind suggests might lead to a lack of variety or differentiation if one firm or lawyer's view becomes "the memo" or "the opinion" in a field.
Maybe. I tried to suggest that there might be a market for at least a few varieties, perhaps the "super-safe", "middle-of-the-road", and "really pushing it" versions for firms with different appetites for risk.
In any case, the question reminded me of a this article, "Technological Conservatism...". The author argues that the increased preservation of, organization of, and access to the past made possible by technology actually slows changes. Citing the greatly increased number of citations per brief or journal article, the author writes,
"Sources from the past operate as a “security blanket,” comforting and assuring lawyers of the present with the commendation of antiquity.The dynamic is mostly quantitative. Increasing the number of sources, and thus the amount of reliance on the past, is the apparent trend."
(The author cites, inter alia, a publication by Judge Posner claiming that the average number of citations per federal appellate opinion has increased from 12.4 to 27.2 between 1960 and 2007. Other works cited attest similar increases in citations as well as an overall increase in length of various legal documents.)