Legal Rebels

Stanford Law School Dean: We Aim to Teach Our Students Not Just to Spot Problems, But to Solve Them

While failings of legal education have been much in the news these past few years, the need to change long predated the economic downturn—which mainly accelerated trends that have been unfolding for years. Stanford began revamping its curriculum in 2004 and already offers a program that does most of what…

Mar 29, 2012 1:00 PM CDT

The $60-Per-Hour Lawyer—Why Dewey Isn’t Ab-Normal

When structural change happens, we like to look for individual agency – find someone who made a mistake and blame them. But Dewey’s problems are more indicative of basic changes happening in law (driven by the broader world) than they are unique boo-boos by Dewey. The best description of the…

Mar 28, 2012 2:05 PM CDT

Dewey or Don’t We: Abnormal or New Normal?

The continuing revelations about uncertain accounting and significant partner defections at Dewey & LeBoeuf, have me mulling whether the problems at Dewey are unique or emblematic of broader trends. Back in the day, coal miners would take canaries into the mine because the birds were more sensitive to build-up of…

Mar 27, 2012 1:29 PM CDT

Changing Stripes: How to Work Collaboratively on Alternative Fee Arrangements

I was just at the Ark Group’s AFA conference Thursday in New York City, and the sentiments that Roya Behnia details in the New Normal column “Alternative Fee Arrangements Are a Tool, Not a Strategy” were in the fabric of pretty much every conversation we had with speakers and participants…

Mar 23, 2012 6:19 PM CDT

Alternative Fee Arrangements Are a Tool, Not a Strategy

Earlier this year, I met Pat Lamb, one of our fearless leaders in the New Normal, for coffee near his office. Given his success in delivering high-quality legal services under alternative fee arrangements, I wanted to hear his thoughts about their use in practice. Pat emphasized that lawyers should be…

Mar 21, 2012 1:49 PM CDT

Where Are the Legal Jeremy Lins?

The best news of the last decade has been the emergence of Jeremy Lin as the point guard of the Knicks. It’s good news because his style of play makes the whole team better, because he confounded expectations, and because he is a decent, hardworking, humble human being. (Full disclosure:…

Mar 13, 2012 2:49 PM CDT

The Legal Innovation Ecosystem: 10 Actors & Their Roles - An Early Review

With Apple’s stock and overall performance continuing into the stratosphere, Steve Jobs has attained the status of a secular saint. But it doesn’t take anything away from Jobs’ accomplishments to say that he wasn’t necessarily the lead musician of every part of the orchestra so much as the conductor. As…

Mar 1, 2012 10:00 PM CST

What a Physics Professor Can Teach Us About Collaborating with Clients

Usually, when my alumni magazine arrives in the mail, I skip the articles to go straight to the class notes section and catch up on my classmates. This time, however, I stopped on a headline proclaiming the “twilight of the lecture” and that a “trend toward ‘active learning’ may overthrow…

Feb 28, 2012 3:13 PM CST

Managing Partner Shares Perspective on the New Normal

K&L Gates Chairman and Global Managing Partner Peter J. Kalis spoke with ABA Journal reporter Rachel M. Zahorsky on the future course of the legal profession and the broader legal industry in the context of the New Normal. On the New Normal in general, Kalis said that what the legal…

Feb 22, 2012 3:14 PM CST

10 Concrete Ways to Measure Law Performance

A few days ago, my compadre Paul Lippe wrote a thoughtful post: What if Someone Could Measure What Lawyers Do? Paul addressed the “fancy term” for the argument that what lawyers do can’t be measured: “credence good.” As good as Paul’s post was, the comments on it were particularly interesting.…

Feb 15, 2012 10:21 PM CST

Show Me the Numbers

Our thesis here at the New Normal is that the legal services that corporations buy will come to look more like other activities inside companies, and the legal services small businesses and consumers buy will come to look like other consumer activities. My thinking on this is driven by experience,…

Feb 14, 2012 9:13 PM CST

What if Someone Could Measure What Lawyers Do?

Based on what we’re seeing with sophisticated legal departments, the four horsemen of the New Normal will be: • Legal process outsourcing. • Substitution of technology for people in repetitive work. • Treating legal work as teamwork rather than individual work. • The emergence of one or several standards for…

Feb 8, 2012 6:38 PM CST

Lawyer Comp: The Third Rail of Legal Value Conversations (Part II)

In Part Two of this article, Susan Hackett, the former general counsel for the Association of Corporate Counsel, and now the CEO of her own consulting practice, Legal Executive Leadership, explores new ways to assess lawyer compensation in the New Normal. In part one, she discussed her concerns with law…

Jan 31, 2012 11:21 PM CST

Practice Group Leaders: Masters of the Legal Renaissance?

Before I left my job as general counsel at a software company, I was offered the chance to become general manager of a product group. Unlike my previous role, the GM job didn’t report to the CEO, but in corporate terms it was still viewed as more important than a…

Jan 25, 2012 10:33 PM CST

The Agile Manifesto Round Three: ‘What We Have Here Is a Failure to Communicate’

Three years ago, I was part of a law firm panel discussion on effective business development. We covered the usual topics, including alternative fee arrangements, budgeting, marketing, etc. I emphasized the importance of having lawyers who made my job as an inside counsel easier. I spoke of outside counsel who…

Jan 18, 2012 2:48 PM CST