One of the joys of watching amazing lawyers at work is how quickly they get to the heart of the matter. Five minutes with an experienced partner can be worth…
Just because we do something all the time does not mean we are good at it. The internet, for example, has recently informed me that I don’t know the right…
On June 6, Cravath Swaine & Moore announced it was raising base salaries for starting associates from $160,000 per year to $180,000 per year. Of course, firms never give…
If you are like me, your desk drawer is crammed with random office supplies like half-used notepads, loose paper clips and maybe a lonely Post-it note. I didn’t think much…
From the beginning of our conversation around the New Normal, we’ve argued that the way legal work is created, consumed and assessed would be more and more like other knowledge…
We are at the front end of something that will change the way the game is played. Or not. It’s early, and inertia has a stellar win/loss record. As mentioned…
The billable hour is not the immediate cause of all that ails the legal industry. Freedom from the tyranny of the billable hour would be a fine start. But there…
Corporate clients are displeased with their law firms. And the displeasure is not confined to opinion surveys. A decades-long decline (PDF) in realizations has been paired with flattening…
Everything is obvious once you know the answer. Humans excel at recognizing after-the-fact inevitability. We reconstruct a logical chain of causation that seems to suggest the outcome was predictable. Yet,…
It took 50 years from the advent of the driverless elevator for the public to become comfortable enough to use them. Even then, it was only because the elevator…
It is stunning how quickly technological advances become a ‘natural’ part of our landscape. In the mid 1990s, Richard Susskind was being labeled “dangerous” and “possibly insane.” His heresy?…
The law does not exist for the purpose of keeping lawyers employed. I cribbed that line—and many others—from Richard Susskind back in the days when there was still a question…
Recent disturbances in The Force of law firm economics (see Dickstein Shapiro’s demise) have brought some comments and observations directed to law firm capital. Some reflect multiple misunderstandings of…
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