Dispatches from a legal profession on the brink
Filed under: Innovation
In the four previous entries in this series, I’ve sketched out what I see as the decline and subsequent rise of the legal profession over the next 10-15 years as a direct effect of rapid evolution in the legal market. My fundamental premise throughout these posts has been that the emergence of new competitors and… Read more »
Filed under: Innovation
This series hasn’t exactly been a joyride so far, has it? Following the complacent satisfaction of Stage 1, the legal profession is not currently enjoying Stage 2 and will be even less fond of what Stage 3 is likely to inflict. You can be forgiven if this feels like a movie you’d like to leave… Read more »
Filed under: Innovation
In the first two parts of this series, we looked at the traditional legal marketplace that held sway for many decades and the current disruption in the market caused by new technology, new competition and new regulation. Today I want to extend the time horizon a few more years and suggest what Stage 3 of… Read more »
Filed under: Innovation
In yesterday’s entry, we painted a portrait of a closed legal marketplace long dominated by lawyers, and we considered the positive and negative results of that state of affairs. Today, in the second of five stages of legal market evolution, we’ll look at current events and forecast the likeliest path those events will take in… Read more »
Filed under: Innovation
I recently delivered my 15th and final presentation of 2012 about the changing legal market. Over the past 12 months, I’ve given speeches and keynote addresses to large firm retreats, sole practitioners, bar leaders and regulators, chief justices, law students, CLE providers, law librarians, and other groups and organizations throughout the United States and Canada. If… Read more »
Last week, I had the pleasure of delivering a speech to the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS), an innovative program headquartered at the University of Denver that addresses reforms to legal education, access to justice, and judicial selection. They had asked me for a presentation that would explain the challenges facing the… Read more »
Large and midsize law firms appear to have an “expenses problem.” Profit is weak, flat or in decline at many midsize and large law firms, says the Hildebrandt Institute. It reports that demand slacked noticeably in the second quarter of 2012 following decent but uneven growth in the first quarter. More problematically, however, expenses soared… Read more »
Filed under: Innovation
The College of Law Practice Management does a lot of great things — honours the pioneers and brightest lights of legal management, sponsors the InnovAction Awards, supports various access to justice initiatives, etc. But next month, you have the opportunity to participate in one of the College’s most high-profile and important projects: The Futures Conference…. Read more »
Filed under: Big Firms, Clients, Law School, Publishing
And suddenly, everyone’s talking about Procurement. Not that long ago, warning lawyers about the rise of the corporate purchasing function was a little like a medieval parent telling their children about the goblin who lived under the floorboards: you’d better behave, or he’ll come and eat you up. Now the goblin is loose: Procurement’s importance… Read more »
Filed under: Law21
If you’re reading this post at Law21, then you already know about this. But if you’re subscribing via email or RSS, you might like to come see the new look and feel we’ve created today. In our first re-design in nearly four years, we’ve given Law21 a cleaner, cooler, and sharper design, with a new… Read more »
