About Jordan

I’m a lawyer, speaker, and consultant based in Ottawa, Canada. I’m a partner with the global consulting firm Edge International and a senior consultant with legal web development company Stem Legal Web Enterprises. I specialize in delivering dynamic and thought-provoking presentations to law firms, practice groups, and legal organizations at a time of unprecedented marketplace change.

After graduating from Queen’s University Faculty of Law in 1993, I began my legal career as an articling student at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP in Toronto. I then went on to serve as an award-winning editor of three top Canadian legal periodicals: the Canadian Bar Association’s National magazine, the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association’s CCCA Magazine, and The Lawyers Weekly newspaper. During my time at National, the magazine took home nine awards for journalistic excellence from a variety of business periodical organizations.

I’m an Honourary Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management, I served as editor of its 2006 Innovaction e-zine on innovation in law practice, and I currently chair the College’s InnovAction Awards, which recognize and reward creativity and innovation in legal services delivery. I’m also a regular contributor to The Lawyers Weekly, Stem Legal’s Law Firm Web Strategy, The Edge International Review, The Edge International Communiqué, Slaw, Attorney At Work, and Small-Firm Innovation. You can find me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Legal OnRamp and Google Plus.

Today, we’re facing extraordinary changes in how legal services are created, priced and delivered throughout the world. My presentations focus on how lawyers and law firms can respond to, and take advantage of, these extraordinary changes. I canvass the state of the market, forecast the next steps in its development, and apply these trends to the future of the firm, group or organization to which I’m presenting.

My audiences choose some or all of these features for sessions that last anywhere from one hour to a full day:

• Legal marketplace analysis: internal trends, external forces, and forecasts of the future.
• Panel leadership: convening an organization’s leaders for in-depth discussions of trends.
• Roundtable facilitation: how marketplace upheaval affects your firm or practice group.
• Scenario planning: interactive explorations of coming developments in the market.
• Online communication: fusing new media with web publishing to develop business.
• Strategic direction: assembling an action plan that your firm can implement today.

Lawyers who attend my presentations come away with the following benefits:

• A deeper appreciation of the unprecedented market forces at work in the legal sphere.
• A clear vision of how and where the legal marketplace will evolve in the future.
• A customized portrait of the impact of these changes on their firm or practice group.
• An opportunity to collaboratively and interactively explore the ramifications of change.
• A practical grasp of ways in which they can respond to and profit from this new era.

Over the past few years, I have delivered presentations and facilitated discussions for many law firms, legal businesses and legal organizations, including:

• The American Bar Association
• The American Bar Association’s Bar Leadership Institute
• The Barreau du Québec
• The Canadian Bar Association’s Law Firm Leaders Conference
• The Canadian Management Committee of Meritas
• The Center For Competitive Management
• The Chambre des Notaires du Québec
• The Chief Justice of Ontario’s Colloquium on Professionalism
• The Faculty of Law at Queen’s University
• The Federation of Law Societies of Canada
• The Georgetown University Law Center for the Study of the Legal Profession
• The Isaac Pitblado Lectures
• The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA)
• The Law Society of British Columbia
• The Law Society of Upper Canada’s Solo & Small-Firm Conference
• The Leg@l IT Conference
• The Legal Marketing Association
• The Legal Marketing Association – Toronto
• The National Association of Law Placement
• The Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society
• The State Capital Group
• Law firm retreats, ranging from firms in smaller regions to the AmLaw 100

Please contact me today for more information about my services or to inquire about availability and rates for presentations and other appearances.

Jordan Furlong
Phone: 613.729.7171
Cell: 613.869.2021
Email: jordan@law21.ca