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Legal Profession
5 Ways Computers Are Revolutionizing the Legal Profession
June 10, 2014
Northwestern University law professor John O. McGinnis, writing in the latest issue of City Journal, explores how the rise of machine intelligence is disrupting and transforming the legal profession. In the journal, which is published by the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute, Mr. McGinnis identifies five areas of the law that “face encroachment” by computers: 1) E-discovery is the area “ripest for computational transformation,” he says: 2) The rise of computation in legal search...
June 10, 2014
Northwestern University law professor John O. McGinnis, writing in the latest issue of City Journal, explores how the rise of machine intelligence is disrupting and transforming the legal profession. In the journal, which is published by the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute, Mr. McGinnis identifies five areas of the law that “face encroachment” by computers: 1) E-discovery is the area “ripest for computational transformation,” he says: 2) The rise of computation in legal search...
An Incomplete Inventory of NewLaw
June 4, 2014
So I was asked to give a presentation about “NewLaw.” No problem at all — aside from the minor, niggling detail of...
June 4, 2014
So I was asked to give a presentation about “NewLaw.” No problem at all — aside from the minor, niggling detail of...
Renovating the Law: Reality vs. Wish Lists
March 15, 2014
Talk of change in the legal profession is a hot topic. The back-to-back conferences this month in New York—LegalTech New York, LexRedux and ReInvent Law—all addressed particular perspectives of where the future lies. * * * Change is messy. Technology is an easier answer than remaking the rules that create the bounds within which the legal profession works. Lawyers can move to the cloud individually largely without regulatory interference, where remaking themselves as an alternative business...
March 15, 2014
Talk of change in the legal profession is a hot topic. The back-to-back conferences this month in New York—LegalTech New York, LexRedux and ReInvent Law—all addressed particular perspectives of where the future lies. * * * Change is messy. Technology is an easier answer than remaking the rules that create the bounds within which the legal profession works. Lawyers can move to the cloud individually largely without regulatory interference, where remaking themselves as an alternative business...
The Relationship Between In-House and Outside Counsel
March 2, 2014
What is the most important and misunderstood relationship in the legal profession? Which relationship in the legal profession causes more ill will than any other relationship? The answer is the relationship between in-house and outside counsel. In-house counsel (including attorneys at corporations, nonprofits and governmental entities) serve as the gatekeepers between their clients and their outside counsel colleagues. A harmonious and productive partnership can often be the difference between success...
March 2, 2014
What is the most important and misunderstood relationship in the legal profession? Which relationship in the legal profession causes more ill will than any other relationship? The answer is the relationship between in-house and outside counsel. In-house counsel (including attorneys at corporations, nonprofits and governmental entities) serve as the gatekeepers between their clients and their outside counsel colleagues. A harmonious and productive partnership can often be the difference between success...
It’s All in the Game: Managing Partners Come to Grips with “Gamification”
January 29, 2014
Many managing partners tell us they are struggling to get their arms around new tools and techniques for driving more efficiency and cost-effectiveness into legal service delivery. Firms are seeing more and more RFPs in which clients make increasingly draconian demands for better management and control of legal work. AFAs (alternative fee arrangements) are reshaping not just pricing and profitability, but the whole way in which matters are staffed and billed. * * * Getting Lawyers into the Game So...
January 29, 2014
Many managing partners tell us they are struggling to get their arms around new tools and techniques for driving more efficiency and cost-effectiveness into legal service delivery. Firms are seeing more and more RFPs in which clients make increasingly draconian demands for better management and control of legal work. AFAs (alternative fee arrangements) are reshaping not just pricing and profitability, but the whole way in which matters are staffed and billed. * * * Getting Lawyers into the Game So...
How GCs Are Shaking Up the Legal Landscape
January 8, 2014
The rising influence of general counsel is playing a key role in dramatic changes shaking up the entire legal landscape, according to a new report from the Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at the Georgetown University Law Center. “The first and perhaps the most obvious change is that the legal market has become much more intensely competitive than it was five years ago . . . [And] the market for legal services has shifted from a sellers' to a buyers' market, a shift that has serious...
January 8, 2014
The rising influence of general counsel is playing a key role in dramatic changes shaking up the entire legal landscape, according to a new report from the Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at the Georgetown University Law Center. “The first and perhaps the most obvious change is that the legal market has become much more intensely competitive than it was five years ago . . . [And] the market for legal services has shifted from a sellers' to a buyers' market, a shift that has serious...
A Glimpse at the Legal Profession’s Future
December 8, 2013
The “Legal Technology Future Horizons” report, to be released by the International Legal Technology Association in January, examines the potential impact of technology advances on the legal industry over the next decade. Here are 10 observances that might be surprising from our survey: 1. New entrants—different but the same? 2. Crowdsourcing judgements—opportunity deferred: 3. Education—ivory towers or digital oasis? 4. Big data, low differentiation: 5. Regulatory barriers...
December 8, 2013
The “Legal Technology Future Horizons” report, to be released by the International Legal Technology Association in January, examines the potential impact of technology advances on the legal industry over the next decade. Here are 10 observances that might be surprising from our survey: 1. New entrants—different but the same? 2. Crowdsourcing judgements—opportunity deferred: 3. Education—ivory towers or digital oasis? 4. Big data, low differentiation: 5. Regulatory barriers...
Meet our 2013 Legal Rebels
September 1, 2013
Excuse us for waving our own flag, but we are exceedingly proud of our fifth-year selections for the ABA Journal’s Legal Rebels. Our annual honors program for the change leaders of the legal profession has again found, thanks to your nominations, 10 outstanding new members. They join the 81 free thinkers selected in the previous four years of Legal Rebels. And though this year’s program was open to anyone in the legal services business, an interesting pattern arose as the final selections...
September 1, 2013
Excuse us for waving our own flag, but we are exceedingly proud of our fifth-year selections for the ABA Journal’s Legal Rebels. Our annual honors program for the change leaders of the legal profession has again found, thanks to your nominations, 10 outstanding new members. They join the 81 free thinkers selected in the previous four years of Legal Rebels. And though this year’s program was open to anyone in the legal services business, an interesting pattern arose as the final selections...
Third-Party Litigation Financing and the Impending Resurgence of the Legal Profession
May 15, 2013
The deterioration of the legal jobs market and the crisis in legal education have dominated recent headlines. Some conclude that the current weak market reflects the new normal in legal education and the profession, and they fill the ether with their tales of doom and gloom. I remember hearing the term "new normal" just prior to the Dotcom Bust in the early 2000s, so such references signal to me a radical change is coming. The growth of third-party litigation financing (TPLF) may be the catalyst...
May 15, 2013
The deterioration of the legal jobs market and the crisis in legal education have dominated recent headlines. Some conclude that the current weak market reflects the new normal in legal education and the profession, and they fill the ether with their tales of doom and gloom. I remember hearing the term "new normal" just prior to the Dotcom Bust in the early 2000s, so such references signal to me a radical change is coming. The growth of third-party litigation financing (TPLF) may be the catalyst...
Clockworks Approach to Lawyer Development
May 4, 2013
William D. Henderson joined the IU Maurer School of Law faculty in 2003 following a visiting appointment at Chicago-Kent College of Law and a judicial clerkship for Judge Richard Cudahy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. In conjunction with other Indiana law faculty, Henderson introduced a new first-year course in 2009 called The Legal Profession. This mandatory four-hour course covers the ethics, competencies, and economics of the legal profession. Inspired by the 2007 Carnegie...
May 4, 2013
William D. Henderson joined the IU Maurer School of Law faculty in 2003 following a visiting appointment at Chicago-Kent College of Law and a judicial clerkship for Judge Richard Cudahy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. In conjunction with other Indiana law faculty, Henderson introduced a new first-year course in 2009 called The Legal Profession. This mandatory four-hour course covers the ethics, competencies, and economics of the legal profession. Inspired by the 2007 Carnegie...
