The Clearspire Story

The Clearspire Story describes why Clearspire holds a special place in the evolution of the legal services industry. It is remembered as a transformative legal delivery company as well as “the next big thing” that failed to achieve its potential disruptive impact. The Clearspire Story is told by founder, Mark Cohen.

Six things modern GCs really want from their law firms 

From his background in major BigLaw firms and General Counsel, now turned independent consultant to law departments and law firms, Steven Walker contributes ‘Six things modern GCs really want from their law firms‘ as the first of a series of posts on Dialogue.

What’s a lawyer now?

In What’s A Lawyer Now? I explore how lawyers define themselves because of the insights derived from the intellectual exercise, not only because lawyers like to define terms.

The American Bar Association (ABA) describes a lawyer as “a licensed professional who advises and represents others in legal matters”. This description raises more questions than it answers – and fails the ‘void-for-vagueness’ standard.

BigLaw sales debate in the spotlight again

In “Is it time for law firms to deploy sales teams?”, his recent article in Bloomberg BigLaw Business, Aric Press, former Editor-in-Chief of The American Lawyer, and now a partner at PP&C Consulting, raised an important question about how the sales function is organized and resourced in BigLaw firms.

This question is a theme on Dialogue and was a major feature in Chapter 8 of Remaking Law Firms: Why & How, so I welcome this new post from John Grimley, advocate-in-chief for BigLaw Firms to embrace professional sales forces.

Seven articles to help you understand how AI can transform your legal practice

OMG! The accountants are coming!

I’ve titled my post ‘OMG! The accountants are coming!‘ prompted by the recent report in Bloomberg’s BigLaw Business titled Law Firms, Regulators Keep Eye on Big Four Move to Legal Services.

Reputation trumps price say most GCs

Earlier this year Validatum published a blog entitled ‘We’re more expensive than them because we are better than them’.

The blog began with my observation that although there are clearly exceptions, it is well understood by most law firm marketing and BD specialists, if not so much by partners, that for the most part, technical ability is not a differentiator in the eyes of clients. And even if it is a differentiator in a specific situation, claims of superiority tend to be viewed by clients as little more than hyperbole and lacking any kind of proof.