Archived Posts

Core competence: 6 new skills now required of lawyers

By • Published:

Filed under: Clients, Collaboration, Competition, Management, New Lawyers

Up till now, the necessary and sufficient skill set for lawyers has looked something like this (in alphabetical order): Analytical ability Attention to detail Logical reasoning Persuasiveness Sound judgment Writing ability (okay, that one’s apparently optional for some) This list doesn’t include such characteristics as knowledge of the law, courtroom presence, or integrity — these… Read more »

Talking to ourselves

By • Published:

Filed under: Clients

American Lawyer magazine has released the 2008 edition of its A-List — its ranking of the firms that “best embody what it means to be a success in the legal community.” If you’d like to know about the cream of this particular crop, here’s the top 20 (registration required). To produce the A-List, American Lawyer… Read more »

Be your own platform

By • Published:

Filed under: Innovation, Marketing, Publishing

This morning, the Supreme Court of Canada released its long-anticipated decision in Keays v. Honda, a wrongful dismissal case that concerned the extent to which punitive damages should be awarded under Canadian employment law. The plaintiff, who had scored an unprecedented $500,000 in extra damages at trial, saw his notice period cut from 24 to… Read more »

Law schools join the talent war

By • Published:

Filed under: Innovation, Law School, Talent

Northwestern University School of Law garnered a lot of attention last week by announcing a series of curriculum changes, most prominently the creation of an accelerated JD program that would allow students to graduate with a law degree in 24 months, rather than the traditional 36. While Dayton and Southwestern law schools have gone this… Read more »

Victims of their own success

By • Published:

Filed under: Big Firms, Innovation

After two weeks away from the blogosphere, my RSS feeder has 756 unread posts for me to look at, not including my daily updates from Dilbert, Slumbering Lungfish, and the Astronomy Picture of the Day. One of those 756 posts appeared at LegalWeek’s Editors’ Blog and concerned UK managing partners’ cluelessness and complacency about the… Read more »

Private KM teams

By • Published:

Filed under: Collaboration, Innovation, Technology

My latest Law21 column has been posted at Slaw. Read it there. Or read it here: The benefits that knowledge management can deliver to a law firm are well documented. They include reducing wasteful duplication, increasing the firm’s intellectual capital, enhancing the firm’s ability to anticipate and meet client needs, improving the firm’s recruitment and… Read more »

Interview with the publisher

By • Published:

Filed under: Law21, New Lawyers

I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Cole Silver of The Silver Group, Ltd. for his well-known Expert Audio Series. Cole and I talked about finding careers within the legal profession outside of the default mainstream jobs — one point I focused on in particular was that many new lawyers consider a law… Read more »

Don’t be stupid

By • Published:

Filed under: Management

Google is of course famous for choosing the motto “Don’t be evil.” A lot of law firms could do themselves a favour if they adopted a slight variant: “Don’t be stupid.” Law firms love to roll out big announcements of one kind or another, this or that latest success or significant hire. But it’s in… Read more »

Innovation requires clients to step up

By • Published:

Filed under: Clients, Innovation

Bruce MacEwen at Adam Smith Esq. reports on a presentation he attended at Allen & Overy’s New York office titled “Innovation in Legal Service Delivery,” featuring high-profile law firm lawyers, in-house counsel and consultants. The gist of the event and his article is that innovation of this type is still very much wanted and isn’t… Read more »

Post Categories