“You’ve got your work cut out for you” by Hans-Peter Gauster on Unsplash

“There are only two ways for a manager to improve the output of an employee: motivation and training.”

— Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Hard Things (2014) at 110.

Several years ago, I had the good fortune of having dinner with David Burgess, the Publishing Director of The Legal 500, a global research company that compiles detailed rankings of law firms based on jurisdiction and practice area.

Because David’s research team interviews hundreds of thousands of corporate clients each year, I asked David, “Is there some aspect of client service that virtually all law firms struggle to get right?’…
Continue Reading Lawyers and teamwork, Part I: Motivation (188)

Professionalism is plotting a major comeback.

With each passing week, it’s becoming clearer that many state bars and supreme courts are getting serious about regulatory reform.  One of the many fruits in this effort is the above presentation, which I encourage readers to review and download.

The presentation was prepared by Alice Mine and…

[Editor’s note: The IFLP archives include several student profiles that document the impact of the program on students’ lives.  With the students’ permission, the IFLP leadership team wanted to share these with a broader audience. Regarding Trezell Ragas, after three weeks at the IFLP Boot Camp at Colorado Law in the spring of 2019, she went on to a 7-month field placement in the Cummins legal department followed by a summer split between PNC legal department and Ballard Spahr. Trezell credits IFLP for opening these doors. wdh.]

Looking at the LinkedIn profile of Trezell Ragas, you’d hardly believe she’s just beginning her career.…
Continue Reading 2019 IFLP Alum Trezell Ragas (186)

image of man looking at watch

A timely reminder on the value of time, from my carpenter.

Large firm lawyers spend a lot of time debating the pros and cons of so-called “alternative fee arrangements,” but hourly billing is still their sweet spot.  It is much nicer to focus on the legal work than to worry about being efficient or pursuing…

Fortunately, there are treatments.

If you work in the legal industry, the above graph from Thomson Reuters’ 2020 Report on the State of the Legal Market should terrify you. What it shows is an industry steadily sliding towards obsolescence, not because the need for legal services is declining but because hiring a lawyer is becoming…

bio card for Elmer Thoreson

[Editor’s note: The IFLP archives include several student profiles that document the impact of the program on students’ lives.  With the students’ permission, the IFLP leadership team wanted to share these with a broader audience. Regarding Elmer Thoreson, after three weeks at the IFLP Boot Camp at Northwestern Law in the spring of 2018, he …

It’s also compounding racial inequality. The story in ten charts.

My fundraising work for the Institute for the Future of Law Practice has required me to delve into the equities of modern legal education, particularly around the debt loads and employment prospects of historically underrepresented groups.  This is because virtually all potential benefactors want diversity…

Plenty. It’s our opportunity to make a quantum leap forward.

Legal Evolution readers are likely familiar with law firm competency models that define the skills and capacities of their lawyers, including the stages of development. In response to changes in the accreditation requirements, law schools have been slowly moving toward what is called Competency-Based Legal…

Arnedia Wallace, SULC

[Editor’s note: The IFLP archives include several student profiles that document the impact of the program on students’ lives.  With the students’ permission, the IFLP leadership team wanted to share these with a broader audience. Regarding Arnedia Wallace, after three weeks at the IFLP Bootcamp at Colorado Law in the spring of 2019, she went …