I am a career-long legal educator who knows that the law school experience that I loved and that has served the profession well for decades, while not broken, is cracked in places.
Today, the Internet-informed public needs lawyers less, but there are more lawyers than ever, and most of them are fighting for the same positions in a quickly-shrinking legal job market.
The practice of law is a service industry, and yet the law school experience gives no substantive focus on the operations of a service industry, and more importantly, on what drives the value of a service in the marketplace.
The single biggest challenge facing lawyers today is dealing with loss of control. The profession’s future success depends on how well lawyers adapt to that loss and adjust our expectations and behavior.
From June 2008 to August 2009, Jason Mendelson wrote a series of articles about the future of the legal profession. Mendelson’s musings on Law Firm 2.0 ignited a first wave of heated comments and debates among readers, including one e-mail from a friend that said, “You are dead to me.”
I don’t practise law and I’m not an American so you could be forgiven for wondering how I managed to find myself writing a piece for the ABA Journal Legal Rebels project. Twitter. The power of social media.
Longtime legal technology bloggers Tom Mighell and Dennis Kennedy recently co-authored The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technology: Smart Ways to Work Together.
To put this post together, I read some material, thought about my reaction to it, sat down and spent some time writing down my point of view. I edited it, and asked my assistant to proofread it for me, then I sent it out the door (or in this case, posted it).
Since Des Moines, Iowa lawyer Roxanne Conlin started her own firm 18 years ago, she has allowed her employees to bring their babies to the office. The animal lover’s office also plays host to a veritable menagerie of kittens (VIDEO), birds and even saltwater fish (VIDEO).
With the Legal Rebels Project, the ABA Journal takes on the daunting task of identifying people who are remaking the practice of law. Those innovations come in the midst of the worst professional crisis in generations. Too often overlooked is who got us into this mess: the Baby Boom generation of attorneys.
The ABA Journal wants to host and facilitate conversations among lawyers about their profession. We are now accepting thoughtful, non-promotional articles and commentary by unpaid contributors.
