http://www.abajournal.com/news/ en abajournal@americanbar.org Copyright 2012 2012-05-27T09:23:14-06:00 http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/a_modest_proposal_for_resolving_disputes_baseball_arbitration/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=topics&utm_campaign=the_new_normal http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/a_modest_proposal_for_resolving_disputes_baseball_arbitration/#:2012-05-23T13:54:29+00:00 Business disputes are not for the faint of heart. Dispute resolution focuses to a great degree on process, designed to accomplish the end of a fair trial or a fair hearing. That so few cases are actually tried seems irrelevant in an effort to foster a fair path toward trial. These days, those cases that do go to trial do so years after the events at issue, and the uncertainty of resolution only makes things worse. Arbitration was conceived of as a way to avoid the ills of the civil justice system, particularly the time and expense associated with many suits. But over the years, arbitration has proven to be… ABA Journal Production, Weekly Newsletter Stories, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Legal Rebels, The New Normal, Trials & Litigation Wed, 23 May 2012 08:54:29 -0500 http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/a_dont_be_dewey_dozen--use_this_checklist_to_make_sure_your_firm_isnt_dewey/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=topics&utm_campaign=the_new_normal http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/a_dont_be_dewey_dozen--use_this_checklist_to_make_sure_your_firm_isnt_dewey/#:2012-05-15T13:30:57+00:00 In 1984 and again in 1987, I worked hard to get Gary Hart elected president. Suffice to say I wasn’t happy about the way that experience ended, and for a long time thereafter whenever someone saw the Hart reference on my resumé they would give me a sideways glance and an awkward chuckle. I suspect that for the next decade, anyone who has “Dewey & LeBoeuf” on his or her resumé will likewise get a sideways glance and an awkward chuckle. My further guess is that at least 10 Am Law 250 firms will fail between now and the end of 2013, for reasons more or less identical to Dewey’s.… Business of Law, Law Practice Management, Law Firms, Large Firm, Legal Rebels, The New Normal Tue, 15 May 2012 08:30:57 -0500 http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/the_zuckerberg_challenge/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=topics&utm_campaign=the_new_normal http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/the_zuckerberg_challenge/#:2012-05-11T22:08:45+00:00 I enjoyed the recent ABA Journal story about the report that Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, negotiated the acquisition of Instagram for $1 billion with Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom without using lawyers (at least initially). The story—and especially the reader comments—illustrated the gulf between the Silicon Valley and conventional lawyer mindsets—both in terms of how they approach the role of lawyers and, perhaps more importantly, how they deal with anomalies. For some commentators (call them the “anti-Zs”), Zuckerberg’s action in going directly to Systrom shows he is a fool, and anyone who invests in… Legal Rebels, The New Normal Fri, 11 May 2012 17:08:45 -0500 http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/on_being_a_trusted_adviser_in_the_new_normal/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=topics&utm_campaign=the_new_normal http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/on_being_a_trusted_adviser_in_the_new_normal/#:2012-05-08T15:24:21+00:00 When I started practicing law in 1982, a good lawyer was one who possessed superior substantive knowledge of an area of the law. Those lawyers read cases and law review articles. Their ability to advise clients on what the law was made them masters of their craft. Things have changed. A lot, as it turns out. At a recent program offered by the Association of Corporate Counsel, Nancy Jessen of Huron Consulting shared this graphic, which she kindly allowed me to use here: Nancy had perfectly captured the evolution of… Business of Law, Law Practice Management, In-house Counsel, Legal Rebels, The New Normal Tue, 08 May 2012 10:24:21 -0500 http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/value_cheap_or_free/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=topics&utm_campaign=the_new_normal http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/value_cheap_or_free/#:2012-05-02T18:47:32+00:00 Scott Bishop wrote a worthy post on his blog, Real Time Marketer. It’s his position that you shouldn’t give away what you do for free or for a discount in order to generate future client business or loyalty. I have to agree. In this market—in which so many clients are trying to cut or control rising costs by asking for freebies or discounts, and so many firms are willing to accede to their demands—this is a hard lesson to learn and apply for lawyers and firms that are hungry for business or opportunities to create stronger institutionalized relationships. Don’t get me wrong. I’m the last person… Legal Rebels, The New Normal Wed, 02 May 2012 13:47:32 -0500 http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/is_your_firm_or_legal_department_old_normal_or_new_normal_see_our_checklist/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=topics&utm_campaign=the_new_normal http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/is_your_firm_or_legal_department_old_normal_or_new_normal_see_our_checklist/#:2012-04-24T13:30:28+00:00 When we first started this series, there were many lawyers who thought the New Normal was overdue, others who thought it had already happened, and perhaps still a majority who thought law was just in a short-term blip and that we would "return to (the Old) Normal." Now, several years in, I think there is widespread agreement that things are changing in law, and even general agreement on the contours of that change. One way to understand what's happening in the legal market is to look outside law at other industries. One of our pharmaceutical industry customers just sent me a great article from Harvard Business… Business of Law, Law Practice Management, Legal Rebels, The New Normal Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:30:28 -0500 http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/if_lawyers_sell_legal_expertise_to_clients_who_owns_the_resulting_product/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=topics&utm_campaign=the_new_normal http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/if_lawyers_sell_legal_expertise_to_clients_who_owns_the_resulting_product/#:2012-04-17T13:30:35+00:00 I’m still mulling over the implications of an article by Mark Hamblett in the New York Law Journal about some lawyers who have filed suit against Lexis-Nexis and West Publishing for what these lawyers say is the “unabashed wholesale copying of thousands of copyright-protected works created by, and owned by, the attorney and law firms." While the article’s story is about whether authoring lawyers or their firms are copyright holders of documents filed in courts and stored as public records—especially if folks retrieving them them want to resell access to and discussion of them as Lexis and West do—I’m more interested… Business of Law, Law Practice Management, Intellectual Property Law, Legal Rebels, The New Normal Tue, 17 Apr 2012 08:30:35 -0500 http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/one_recipe_for_a_new_normal_firm/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=topics&utm_campaign=the_new_normal http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/one_recipe_for_a_new_normal_firm/#:2012-04-11T13:30:52+00:00 Several recent posts by Paul Lippe have highlighted the problems currently being encountered by Dewey & LeBeouf. Already this year, more than 45 partners have abandoned the firm, and American Lawyer recently restated, rather dramatically, Dewey's revenue and profits per equity partner for 2010 and 2011. Comparisons to Howrey abound: The slow drip, drip, drip of the "run on the bank" surely seems to have started. While the focus for the moment is on Dewey and its remaining partners, the truth is that most BigLaw partners must at least secretly wonder what they would design if they were required to start a new firm to… Business of Law, Law Practice Management, Law Firms, Large Firm, Solos/Small Firms, Legal Rebels, The New Normal Wed, 11 Apr 2012 08:30:52 -0500 http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/the_dewey_dozen_capital_sufficiency_survival/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=topics&utm_campaign=the_new_normal http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/the_dewey_dozen_capital_sufficiency_survival/#:2012-04-03T21:20:21+00:00 When news first broke about troubles at Dewey LeBoeuf, I wondered whether problems like Dewey’s are an outlier or representative of broader trends. Then, I explored the long-term trends that are likely to lead to more Deweys. In this third piece, I want to describe what happens in the very short term when a firm finds itself in a liquidity squeeze. According to the published reports, Dewey: • Missed targets, announced layoffs and deferred payouts. • Has both outstanding notes ($125 million and a bank revolving credit.)… Business of Law, Law Practice Management, Law Firms, Large Firm, Partners, Legal Rebels, The New Normal Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:20:21 -0500 http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/stanford_law_school_dean_larry_kramer/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=topics&utm_campaign=the_new_normal http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/stanford_law_school_dean_larry_kramer/#:2012-03-29T13:00:17+00:00 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 thoughtful reformers say is necessary. One thing we did not change was the first year, which inculcates core skills of legal problem-spotting and analysis: the essence of what it means to “think like a lawyer.” The problem was that law school consisted of almost nothing but this style of education, robotically repeated with steeply diminishing returns for two more years.… Law Schools, Law Students, Legal Rebels, The New Normal Thu, 29 Mar 2012 08:00:17 -0500 http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/the_60_hour_lawyer--why_dewey_isnt_ab-normal/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=topics&utm_campaign=the_new_normal http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/the_60_hour_lawyer--why_dewey_isnt_ab-normal/#:2012-03-28T14:05:53+00:00 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 legal market and the implications for firms in the New Normal comes from Jeffrey Carr, the General Counsel of FMC Technologies. According to Jeff, lawyers do four things: Advocacy – representing the client’s interests in relationship to external parties, most commonly litigation; Counseling – advising the client on actions that favor long-term over short-term interests; Content –… Business of Law, Law Practice Management, Law Firms, Large Firm, Legal Rebels, The New Normal Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:05:53 -0500 http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/dewey_or_dont_we_abnormal_or_new_normal/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=topics&utm_campaign=the_new_normal http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/dewey_or_dont_we_abnormal_or_new_normal/#:2012-03-27T13:29:32+00:00 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 carbon monoxide and methane than humans, and would serve as a leading indicator of dangerous conditions. So is Dewey a canary in the legal market mine-shaft, a more sensitive indicator of tricky conditions, or is it just an outlier? The best description of Dewey’s travails… Business of Law, Law Practice Management, Law Firms, Large Firm, Legal Rebels, The New Normal Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:29:32 -0500 http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/changing_stripes_how_to_work_collaboratively_on_alternative_fee_arrangement/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=topics&utm_campaign=the_new_normal http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/changing_stripes_how_to_work_collaboratively_on_alternative_fee_arrangement/#:2012-03-23T18:19:09+00:00 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 in breakouts. Based on those conversations, and my experience working with the Association of Corporate Counsel Value Challenge, here are a few additional thoughts for the pile: On client reticence: It's really important to remember that law department leaders are trained and experienced in the same work environments as their… Business of Law, Law Practice Management, Careers, Lawyer Pay, Law Firms, Legal Rebels, The New Normal Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:19:09 -0500 http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/alternative_fee_arrangements_are_a_tool_not_a_strategy/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=topics&utm_campaign=the_new_normal http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/alternative_fee_arrangements_are_a_tool_not_a_strategy/#:2012-03-21T13:49:45+00:00 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 paid for successful outcomes and not for quantity of work. We talked about my own early experience with an AFA in which my outside counsel arrived at a flat fee by multiplying the number of hours they expected to put into the matter by their traditional hourly rate. We agreed on a lot, and I left with… ABA Journal Production, Business of Law, Law Practice Management, Legal Rebels, The New Normal, Trials & Litigation, Attorney Fees Wed, 21 Mar 2012 08:49:45 -0500 http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/where_are_the_legal_jeremy_lins/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=topics&utm_campaign=the_new_normal http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/where_are_the_legal_jeremy_lins/#:2012-03-13T14:49:57+00:00 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: Jeremy’s younger brother played with my son for several years, where Jeremy helped out the team. I hope he’ll marry one of my daughters before becoming president, and I am a longtime Harvard basketball fan, so I make no claim of objectivity.) Although Jeremy had a very solid track record in high school and college—he captained his high school team… Legal Rebels, The New Normal Tue, 13 Mar 2012 09:49:57 -0500 http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/the_legal_innovation_ecosystem/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=topics&utm_campaign=the_new_normal http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/the_legal_innovation_ecosystem/#:2012-03-01T22:00:33+00:00 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 Walter Isaacson illustrates in his recent biography, literally since Jobs was in high school, he was immersed in the Silicon Valley (broadly understood) ecosystem, starting out with the Homebrew Computer Club, then working with HP, Atari, Xerox Parc and Sony. To create the iPhone and iPad, Jobs had to orchestrate chip companies, glass manufacturers, music labels,… Legal Rebels, The New Normal Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:00:33 -0600 http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/what_a_physics_professor_can_teach_us_about_collaborating_with_clients/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=topics&utm_campaign=the_new_normal http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/what_a_physics_professor_can_teach_us_about_collaborating_with_clients/#:2012-02-28T15:13:07+00:00 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 the style of teaching that has ruled universities for 600 years.” Intrigued, I took a closer look at the story of a physics professor, Eric Mazur, who has abandoned the traditional lecture format in exchange for “peer instruction” in his introductory physics class. What is “peer instruction” or “interactive learning?” If, like me, you haven’t… Legal Rebels, The New Normal Tue, 28 Feb 2012 10:13:07 -0600 http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/peter_kalis_an_alternate_perspective_on_the_new_normal/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=topics&utm_campaign=the_new_normal http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/peter_kalis_an_alternate_perspective_on_the_new_normal/#:2012-02-22T15:14:56+00:00 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 profession is seeing now "is a much overdue debate on the future course of the profession and the broader legal industry. A lot of us have sharply defined views on that subject, and it is a privilege to be able to share them." Below, Kalis shares his perspective as he draws on his experience from the… Business of Law, Law Practice Management, Outsourcing, Law Firms, Legal Rebels, The New Normal Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:14:56 -0600 http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/concrete_steps_toward_measuring_law_performance/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=topics&utm_campaign=the_new_normal http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/concrete_steps_toward_measuring_law_performance/#:2012-02-15T22:21:47+00:00 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. FMC Technologies Inc. general counsel Jeff Carr, who has been measuring lawyer performance for a decade, wondered why this was still a topic of conversation. Others suggested measuring outcomes, but the some wondered how you measure quality. At a recent lunch, Mark Herrmann,… Business of Law, Law Practice Management, In-house Counsel, Legal Rebels, The New Normal Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:21:47 -0600 http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/show_me_the_numbers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=topics&utm_campaign=the_new_normal http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/show_me_the_numbers/#:2012-02-14T21:13:17+00:00 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, having spent most of my life either running the legal function inside a company or in other operating roles, or trying to be an aggressive consumer of online services. When lawyers attack the New Normal thesis, the rejoinder usually comes down to three things: • Because change hasn’t fully happened yet and has been discussed for a while, it won’t… Law Firms, Large Firm, Legal Rebels, The New Normal Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:13:17 -0600