Law in the age of the customer

Mark Cohen opens Law in the age of the customer with the statement: This is the age of the customer.

The asymmetrical advantage that sellers long held over buyers is gone. Consumers have access to market information and choice that has transformed the buy-sell dynamic. Social media provides them with a reference source and a voice. The balance of power has shifted from the supply to the demand side. The customer is king in the digital age.

Law’s shift from practice to skill

During a recent visit to the National University of Singapore Law School (NUS), I asked a first-year student what being a lawyer meant to him. His response was thoughtful and prescient: “I regard law as a skill. I plan to leverage my legal training and meld it with my passion for business, technology, and policy. For me, law is not about practice.” Out of the mouths of babes!

Big Money Is Betting On Legal Industry Transformation

Big Money Is Betting On Legal Industry Transformation writes prolific contributor to Dialogue, Mark Cohen.

If “Money makes the world go ‘round,” then the legal world is spinning as never before. Law has been big business for decades, but only recently has significant venture capital, private equity, and entrepreneur money been pumped into the legal sector. Last year saw an eye-popping 718% increase in legal industry investment, and this year’s capital infusion through the third-quarter has already surpassed last year’s $1 billion total and could well double it.

More for less is more than a slogan

Mark Cohen’s More for less is much more than a slogan explores one of several economic opportunities and cultural challenges facing BigLaw business model firms.

Business is about doing more with less. This is its mantra since the global financial crisis. Tech-enabled, data and process-driven upstarts have unseated a pan-industry array of incumbents and ushered in the digital age. Optimization of customer access, satisfaction, and value are common denominators among the disruptors.

It’s the business model that matters

It’s the business model that matters is another Mark Cohen masterpiece dissecting the failings of the BigLaw business model by reference to three pioneering NewLaw model firms, particularly the little-known FisherBroyles of the US.