Monthly Archives: March 2009

Join “Legal Innovation” at LinkedIn

By Jordan Furlong | Published: March 27, 2009
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m serving as Chair this year of the InnovAction Awards, an annual presentation by the College of Law Practice Management (which, by the way, has announced the September dates for its high-powered Futures Conference).  The InnovAction Awards recognize and promote law firms, legal departments, and other providers of legal services that [...]
Posted in Innovation, Law21 | Leave a comment

Rightsizing

By Jordan Furlong | Published: March 26, 2009
The massive grocery superstore in my neighbourhood has something like 17 checkouts. Great, you might think — 17 lines, no waiting. But I do wait, often, behind two or three people usually, and it’s not because the store is bulging with shoppers at any given time. It’s because at least some of those checkouts are [...]
Posted in Management | 6 Comments

How to solve the legal employment crisis

By Jordan Furlong | Published: March 23, 2009
The cover story in last week’s Economist got me thinking about the looming crisis in lawyer employment. “When jobs disappear” paints a bleak picture of a rising wave of unemployment worldwide that will hurt more and last longer than past employment crises. The credit crunch has forced companies to cut costs rapidly, while the massive [...]
Posted in Innovation, Recession, Talent | 14 Comments

Peer pressure

By Jordan Furlong | Published: March 20, 2009
“If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?” Every parent has uttered some variation on that line to a child who insists on doing something unwise, over-priced, or physically perilous simply because “everyone else is doing it.” Training children to resist peer pressure is one of the thankless but necessary [...]
Posted in Big Firms, Innovation | 2 Comments

This is not a drill

By Jordan Furlong | Published: March 10, 2009
I’ve experienced it, and maybe you have, too. In mid-flight, the seat-belt light comes on and the pilot announces that the airplane is entering an area of turbulence. Shortly afterward, various shakes and jolts start bumping you around, and while it can be unnerving, you knew it was coming and you’re not too concerned. Then, [...]
Posted in Innovation | 1 Comment

The other shoe

By Jordan Furlong | Published: March 6, 2009
If you like your comedy dark, track the law firm layoff news. There’s the partner at Pillsbury LLP who, seated on a crowded but quiet commuter train into NewYork City, conducted a loud cellphone conversation with a colleague at the office that revealed planned associate layoffs at the firm, right down to naming the names [...]
Posted in Big Firms, Recession, Talent | 2 Comments

The evolution of lawyer regulation

By Jordan Furlong | Published: March 3, 2009
The thing about change is that once it gets rolling, it’s almost impossible to control and can go in directions you neither anticipated nor like very much. That thought occurred to me while reading a report issued last week by the Legal Services Policy Institute, the think-tank division of UK legal training company The College [...]
Posted in Big Firms, Governance, Talent | 5 Comments

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