Legal sector analyst, consultant, author, and reformer. (he/him) We have the chance to turn the pages over. Luke 12: 24-32.
Feb 1 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
This fascinating piece by @aebra_coe about compensation systems at large US firms gives real insight into the new and unpleasant dynamics at these massive businesses. Above all, it says the idea of BigLaw "partnership" is dying. 1/8law360.com/pulse/modern-l…
For starters, paying a lawyer $20M to join your firm is certifiably nuts. It'll be years before the lateral generates enough profit to cover their acquisition costs, and they could be gone by then. The best indicator of a partner leaving a firm is that they've done it before. 2/
Jan 4 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
This report expresses the immediate threat Generative AI poses to law firms -- the dismantling of time-based pricing -- while also recognizing the dilemma it poses: How can lawyers persuade clients to pay for value after a century of charging for time? legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/ai…
I've argued (particularly here: ) that the billable hour is so entrenched because it's a rough proxy for the "value" of a legal service that neither the client nor the lawyer can defensibly define. What happens if you take away that proxy?law21.ca/2017/06/rise-m…
Mar 17, 2023 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
During and after the Great Financial Crisis, when a handful of big US law firms collapsed (law.com/americanlawyer…), some smart folks (Bruce MacEwen, Edwin Reeser pointed out something about law firms: They are, fundamentally, constructs of confidence. 1/
Many law firms are held together by little more than their lawyers' collective confidence in the stability and desirability of the firm as a platform. If you believe the firm is a good place to be and other partners believe the same, then the firm is stable and life goes on. 2/
Feb 2, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
"The legal profession, in addition to losing lawyers at alarming rates due to burnout, stress, anxiety and depression, is at risk for losing lawyers due to suicide."
7% of surveyed lawyers experienced suicide ideation in the *weeks* before the survey. law360.com/pulse/modern-l…
"77% of lawyers reported burnout from their work, with almost half saying they thought about leaving their job. 40% contemplated leaving the profession entirely in the last three years due to stress ... 86% of Black lawyers and 88% of Hispanic or Latino lawyers reported burnout."
Sep 1, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Business travel was so massive for so long mostly because business culture simply wouldn't accept video as appropriate for meetings. The pandemic forced the culture to change, virtually overnight. 1/ law360.com/pulse/modern-l…
Business travel will be maximum 80% of what it used to be, likely less. Think about the cumulative $$ and carbon saved, across every country and industry. That's not a "benefit" of the pandemic; that's an indictment of lazy, rigid business cultures. And law is worse than most. 2/
Jul 20, 2022 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
Michael Lewis's "Moneyball" had wide influence well beyond baseball, including in the legal sector. (I wrote a column about Moneyball and the law back in 2011.) So this deep dive into the long-term influence of the book within baseball is interesting: 1/ thescore.com/mlb/news/23854…
A lot of people drew the wrong lessons from Moneyball, though, including innovators in the legal sector. (I speak from experience.) So I thought I'd briefly mention three conclusions that I think do stand up nearly 20 years after the book came out. 2/
May 12, 2021 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
I'm fascinated by the speed with which flexible law firm work is becoming normalized. I can't remember a change this significant to law firm culture occurring in such a short time frame with such broad acceptance. law.com/americanlawyer… A 🧵 with many links and a few thoughts.
Interesting to see opinion run early and hard against firms pressuring people to return full-time to the office. I'm hearing of lawyers & staff saying, "If you make me come back to the office, I'll quit," and meaning it. This is the start of a power shift. law.com/americanlawyer…
Sep 25, 2020 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
I've been invited to speak (virtually) to law students at three schools in the US and Canada. It's a privilege and a really energizing experience.
For one school, I put together a list of Law21 posts geared towards students and new lawyers, which I thought I'd share here. 1/5
- To the class of 2020 (last in a 10-part series from earlier this year about the pandemic and the law): law21.ca/2020/05/pandem…
- What will lawyers do now? (short pre-pandemic post from January about what lawyers will do in the new legal economy) law21.ca/2020/01/what-w… 2/5
Sep 8, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
“For decades, we've tried to understand the access to justice problem by looking at the provider – lawyers, courts and academics in the system. What we have started to pick up on… is to shift our focus from the provider to the user." YES.
A few quick thoughts about this monumental development in Utah, which I fully support and which I hope starts a movement for legal regulatory liberalization across the US -- but by no means is it guaranteed to do so. 1/4
In two years, as Bob reports, this pilot will end unless the Utah SC acts to extend it. What will be needed for extension at that time is not just the absence of harm caused by Sandbox participants -- it will be evidence of A2J benefits achieved for Utah consumers and businesses.
Jul 10, 2020 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
American friends struggling with the bar exam nightmare #barpocalypse: There is a better alternative than either forcing law graduates to do the bar exam (useless at the best of times, criminally negligent now) or sending them into the practice of law with nothing but a J.D. 1/11
Law grads don't need to be re-tested on what they learned in law school (or if they do, then the regulator needs to de-accredit the school). They've got the substantive law knowledge. What they need are the skills, supports, and structures to become working legal professionals.
Jul 8, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
You know what you really don't want, if you're a legal regulator?
Great news from the Law Society of Ontario: Its Access to Justice Committee officially invites comments on a Family Legal Services Provider (FLSP) licensing model. lawsocietygazette.ca/news/call-for-… Another potential offspring of the late LLLT program in Washington.
Here's the Family Legal Services Provider License Consultation Paper, released earlier this month and drawing on the important Bonkalo Report of 2016. lawsocietyontario.azureedge.net/media/lso/medi…
May 25, 2020 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
Now that my 10-part "Pandemic" series at Law21 has wrapped up, I thought I'd create a thread containing links to all 10 entries for easier reference. My sincere thanks to everyone who found these posts helpful and told others about them.
Part 1: "What we’re up against," where I assess the public health and recessionary impact of the pandemic (maybe a little too optimistically) and the incompatibility the crisis has revealed between how the legal sector operates and what the world needs. law21.ca/2020/04/pandem…
May 20, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
A brief thread about writing.
I really struggled with my most recent blog post, the last in an unexpected 10-part series. I got off to a great start -- I hammered out four really exceptional (if I may say so) paragraphs in no time. Then the wheels started coming off. 1/5
I kept writing, but I was losing all the great momentum I'd started with. I reworded what I wrote, then rearranged the sentences, then moved whole paragraphs. I wrote new sections, then deleted them. I wrote too much, then hived it off into sections. Still no good. 2/5
May 20, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Fascinating look at the nuts-and-bolts of law firm offices during the pandemic. My favourite note: Because lawyers are so insistent on lots of personal office space for status reasons, law firms are readier for workplace distancing than most other places. law.com/americanlawyer…
I see three major roadblocks to BigLaw office reopenings. Employees afraid to use crowded public transit to come downtown is one, massive bottlenecks at elevator banks is another. But the biggest problem will be what you might call "reverse network effects."
May 16, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I disagree with many of these predictions, but I think he's right that universities are now primarily credentialing entities. nymag.com/intelligencer/… The real competition among them is over brand and prestige, and a handful have an almost insurmountable lead over all the rest.
Law schools have a similar issue. They have market value only insofar as regulators accept their degrees as part of the lawyer licensing process, and insofar as law firms prize their brand and want to add it to their own "best-and-brightest" hiring system. law21.ca/2009/06/the-be…
May 8, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
What's interesting about the objections raised to an online bar exam isn't that they're necessarily invalid, but that they really raise questions about the exam itself. If an exam can't be validly administered online, how robust, resilient and valid is it? abajournal.com/web/article/af…
For example, some objections relate to online proctoring, to prevent cheating. But if you weren't giving an exam that merely retests law school by asking for "correct answers," cheating wouldn't be an issue. Assign questions instead that require analysis and judgment to answer.
May 1, 2020 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
Thread about law office closures.
This post by @ArtificialLawya digs into the realities of office life in a pandemic. Workplaces at 30% capacity, long lines to get on an elevator, constant risk of infection by seemingly healthy colleagues. That's not a place anyone wants to be.
But I've heard stories of law firms ordering staff back to work, which if true, would be consistent with the broader trend that the most vulnerable workers are taking the brunt of COVID-19, while the privileged shelter safely at home.
Law schools, their faculty and their students should probably assume that the Fall 2020 term will take place entirely online. Reasoning here (wonkhe.com/blogs/the-cloc…) and here (abovethelaw.com/2020/04/will-u…)
I second Alex Usher's point that a full term of online learning needs to be better than our current (understandably) jury-rigged Zoom-based system. Law schools should be thinking now about how to build engaging, accessible, digitally native courses. That won't be quick or easy.
Apr 13, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
I hope it's what happens too. :-) I agree with Richard's take that we're still some distance from radical change in law firm business models, although I do think WFH will inhibit docketing and deprive firms of some hourly inventory, which could encourage fixed-fee retainers. 1/6
(Quasi-)public justice institutions (courts, regulators, bar admission) are in deeper and more immediate trouble and therefore are likelier to change sooner in the pandemic's 2-3 year run than private firms, which is why my series currently focuses more on the public side. 2/6
