Category Archives: Collaboration

The three types of collaboration

There was a lot to take away from yet another excellent ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago last week. One thing I didn’t take away, though, was my laptop. I managed to lose it the night before leaving and spent a fruitless morning searching all over the Hilton Chicago hoping to find it. Happily for me (and [...]
Also posted in Clients | 7 Comments

Customized casebooks vs. collaborative knowledge

Ready or not, here they come: electronic law texts are gaining momentum. A conference in Seattle this weekend on the future of the legal casebook will discuss how these books can be made widely available in electronic format (here are Gene Koo’s submissions for the workshop). The growing popularity of Amazon’s Kindle, especially the book-sized [...]
Also posted in Law School, Publishing | Leave a comment

Core competence: 6 new skills now required of 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 [...]
Also posted in Clients, Competition, Management, New Lawyers | 12 Comments

Private KM teams

My latest Law21 column has been posted at Slaw. Read it there. Or read it here:
Also posted in Innovation, Technology | 1 Comment

Book review: The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies

The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell (Chicago: American Bar Association Law Practice Management Section, 2008 ) The most important and remarkable thing about The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies is that it’s not really a technology book. This might come as a surprise, considering the [...]
Also posted in Books | 3 Comments

Client-based lawyer ratings

I haven’t written before now about Avvo, the online lawyer rating system that generated so much controversy when it was first launched last year. Most of what you need to know about the site can be found in this collection of articles at Legal Blog Watch, but in a nutshell: Avvo provides a numerical rating [...]
Also posted in Clients, Marketing | 4 Comments

Authenticity and lawyer recruitment

The editors at LegalWeek blogged recently about the results of the Sunday Times’
Also posted in Big Firms, New Lawyers, Talent, Technology | 2 Comments

Takeaways from TECHSHOW

The kid is back from the candy store known as ABA TECHSHOW. This was my first trip in two years, and probably the best of the shows I’ve attended so far. I met up with old friends, made some new ones, and managed to avoid most of the St. Patrick’s Day revellers at the Chicago [...]
Also posted in Big Firms, Solo & Small Firm, Technology | 2 Comments

Leading by asking

“There go my people,” said 19th-century radical French politician Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin, supposedly on seeing a mob pass by the café where he was seated. “I must find out where they are going, so I can lead them.” You won’t find a more succinct summary of the paradoxical nature of leadership than that: how can [...]
Also posted in Leadership | Leave a comment

Crowdsourcing legal research

A terrific discussion is underway at SLAW, prompted by news of a new Canadian online research service, about the future of commercial legal databases. Ever since the LII system (Legal Information Institute) got rolling, the writing has been on the wall for fee-based online caselaw databases — how much longer can you charge a price [...]
Also posted in Innovation, Research | 2 Comments

Search the Archives