Why everyone should read Legal Upheaval

Today’s headline on Dialogue, Why everyone should read Legal Upheaval, is a rhetorical statement emphasising my message and challenging readers to take action.

Michele DeStefano wrote Legal Upheaval: A Guide to Creativity, Collaboration and Innovation in Law to inspire practising lawyers to innovate, irrespective of how comfortable and successful they feel. In this she succeeds admirably. Here’s why…  

Remaking News of the Week: Women founders

We are regularly reminded of the same dismal facts about the lack of anything near gender equality in BigLaw firms the world over. Some ‘name’ firms still have fewer than 10% of women in their equity ranks and, to my knowledge, no large law firm has anywhere close to 50%.

The commonly cited reasons include subconscious gender bias and family-unfriendly policies and practices. Or perhaps as today’s Remaking News of the Week feature shows women are finding other ways: Women-Owned Law Firms Surge Amid Gender Disparity in the Profession was published on 9 October 2018 in The NewYork Law Journal.

Remaking News of the Week: What lawyers learn from Deep Blue

We all know IBM’s Deep Blue computer narrowly defeated Garry Kasparov in 1997, having lost the first match a year earlier.

Then in 2015 Google’s DeepMind triumphed in the AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol match. 

Now comes the story of AI defeating not one, but 20, corporate lawyers: 20 top lawyers were beaten by legal AI.

Yes, you can tell a roomful of millionaires their business model is wrong

David Maister is credited with rhetorically asking “How do you tell a roomful of millionaires they are wrong?”. Well now Mark Cohen reports he’s found a receptive room of lawyers in Singapore.

Acting on price sensitivity in BigLaw firms

Remaking News of the Week: Playing to win in BigLaw

Playing to win in BigLaw is prompted by Bruce MacEwen recounting a conversation with a friend in the BigLaw industry:  “He had correctly deduced from a recent column in these pages that I’m (re-)reading the all-time strategy classic Playing to Win by A.G. Lafley and Roger Martin (HBR 2013). My friend called with ‘an epiphany’: “I realized my firm isn’t playing to win; it’s playing not to lose.  I think most law firms are doing the same“.

Remaking News of the Week: Why PEPP averages mislead

In Australia, it’s the Royal Commission into Banking that’s generating super-profits for a few large firms. This is analysed in the Thomson Reuters State of the Legal Market 2018 Report curated by Joel Barolsky, a contributor to Dialogue. When demand shrivels, these good times won’t last.

Today, Nick Bruch’s Law.Com piece (1) features as Remaking News of the Week. In Law Firms Are More Profitable Than Ever. How are They Doing It? Nick brings us an analysis of how US BigLaw firms are increasing their profitability. He shows why economic  logic says this can’t continue without major remaking of the business model – which a few firms are doing with promising results.