Legal Rebels

Instead of telling everyone you’re the ‘Best & Brightest,’ listen more to the people in the trenches

I really, really wish lawyers would stop using the expression “Best & Brightest” to describe themselves. For example, the “Recruiting the Best & Brightest” page at Covington & Burling’s website. When I was a college freshman in 1976, the first book we were assigned to read in an American Presidency…

Jul 10, 2014 1:30 PM CDT

Why it’s time to overhaul the Model Rule on fees to better serve clients

Well-known litigator David Boies recently panned the billable hour as “a problem” that “creates a conflict of interest between the lawyer and the client.” And Ted Olson has said he negotiates a fixed fee for legal work whenever possible, so “then a client knows if it’s expensive.” Eighty percent of…

Jun 26, 2014 1:30 PM CDT

RIP Clearspire: Is this an ominous sign for NewLaw?

Clearspire, the law firm piece at least, ceased operations on May 15. According to its website: “For five years, Clearspire led the charge in revolutionizing the 21st-century workplace and the delivery of legal services. We built a re-engineered law firm as an alternative to BigLaw and, in the process, challenged…

Jun 11, 2014 2:06 PM CDT

‘Brain surgeon’ lawyering in crises isn’t enough

One of us (Paul) had the opportunity last week to speak to Richard Susskind’s conference in Scotland on the future of law, enjoying one of the great expressions from Richard: “Most clients would rather have a guardrail at the top of the hill rather than an ambulance at the bottom.”…

May 22, 2014 1:40 PM CDT

How can we apply New Normal principles to increase access to justice?

Before law school, I worked for Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the Democratic senator from New York. That job exposed me to a lot of interesting experiences, none perhaps more so than in the winter of 1980-1981, after Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter and took office as President. The initial days of…

May 8, 2014 5:14 PM CDT

Law school leaders are dividing into two camps: stuck v. serious

As law schools continue to struggle with an extraordinary decline in applications, their leaders—deans—seem to be dividing themselves into two camps: the stuck and the serious. The stuck camp is exemplified by the New York Times op-ed by University of California at Irvine Dean Erwin Chemerinsky two weeks ago. ”This…

Apr 30, 2014 1:50 PM CDT

10 things judges can do to help business litigation be more efficient and less expensive

I recently lived through a litigator and client’s bad dream—a case that settled on the eve (literally) of trial. As a litigator, it is difficult to be primed for battle only to have to pack up and go home, unable to test yourself in battle against a highly regarded opponent.…

Apr 24, 2014 1:50 PM CDT

Call for nominations: Do you know a true change agent in legal practice?

We hear time and again that there’s a dire need for change in the legal industry, but that nobody much likes to change. Yet there are those among us who embrace change, push for it and find ways to get the rest of us to follow along. We’re looking for…

Apr 23, 2014 2:00 PM CDT

Move a firm from ‘normal’ to ‘better’ by focusing on clients, getting creative with lawyer training

It is time for the legal profession to stop looking at how to survive the “new normal” and concentrate on thriving as the “new better.” Let’s get on with it! All those merger moves, all those lateral moves, all those staff moves. All that internal financial focus. But there is…

Apr 3, 2014 1:30 PM CDT

As lawyers learn to be integrators, who will be ‘the straw that stirs the drink?’

The legal field is in a state of flux—many would say decline. I prefer “reconfiguration.” The forecast is bleak. The weight of the evidence supports the glum outlook: Law school enrollment is declining; student debt is escalating; and the job market for lawyers—newly minted and old-hands alike—is the worst it…

Mar 25, 2014 2:00 PM CDT

More lawyers are embracing change—even though ‘old normalists’ are still the majority

“Those whom the gods would destroy, they would first send to three conferences on the future of law.” That’s not exactly what Euripides said, but more or less how I feel. Our basic thesis here at the New Normal is that law is changing from what we might call “lawyer-centered…

Mar 19, 2014 1:45 PM CDT

Walking the talk: Putting the agile manifesto into action at an in-house legal department

Recently, I was on a panel on the future of the legal profession. As expected with such a broad topic, you can bet the lawyers in attendance had a lot to say. We covered alternative fee arrangements, the impact of globalization and the changing allocation of work between in-house and…

Mar 4, 2014 2:45 PM CST

ReInvent Law NYC implores lawyers to embrace change and technology

Lawyers need to embrace technology, can’t be afraid to try new things, and must focus primarily on improving their clients’ experience. Those were the main takeaways from Friday’s ReInvent Law conference in New York City. More than 800 lawyers, academics, business owners, students and others in the legal industry packed…

Feb 10, 2014 3:06 AM CST

Aggressive action—not tinkering—is required to resolve the access to justice crisis

There is a deep access-to-justice crisis in this country—but the legal profession gets a failing grade for its response to it. Consider this: • More than 61 million people eligible to receive legal aid—for such fundamentally important matters as avoiding the foreclosure of their homes or losing parental rights—are not…

Feb 6, 2014 3:00 PM CST

The agile lawyer will rise as permanent, full-time, salaried employment vanishes

Lawyer jobs are disappearing. Every day, law firms across the country reduce their ranks of associates and partners, removing more and more table settings as their revenue pie keeps shrinking. Over the past few years, only about 55 percent of law school graduates have been finding full-time, law-related work nine…

Jan 30, 2014 2:45 PM CST