Innovators and early adopters come together to discuss human capital in the emerging one-to-many legal economy — a great opportunity for law students and career service professionals.


In Tomorrow’s Lawyers, Richard Susskind predicts the emergence of several new jobs for lawyers, including the legal knowledge engineer, the legal technologist, the legal hybrid, the legal process analyst, the legal project manager, the ODR practitioner, the legal management consultant, and the legal risk manager.

“I am sure there are others,” writes Susskind, “but these are the jobs that flow quite clearly from the arguments and claims of this book” (p. 111). Indeed, in each case, the new job is a product of what is technologically possible and what clients want and need. It sounds simple, but it’s not.

We are now in a significant period of experimentation and risk taking, some of it by legaltech start-ups, some by innovative law firms and legal departments, some by NewLaw, and some by organizations such as the Big Four that have the financial and human capital resources to play the long game.

Remarkably, representatives of all of these stakeholders are showing up for Law Jobs for Humans, an event expertly curated by Dan Lear and produced by Evolve the Law, which is Above the Law’s Innovation Center.  I am fortunate to co-chair this event with trailblazer Irene Mo, a 2017 grad of Michigan State Law, who is expertly building her career from opportunities that don’t yet have a Susskind-like label but one day will, thanks in part to her willingness to go first.

Law Jobs for Humans is an ideal event for innovator/early adopter law students and law school career services professionals who want insight on this tremendously messy but vibrant period we are entering. The intellectually curious and hungry will also benefit, as the roster of speakers contains a rare breadth and depth of experience and perspective.

Kudos to Evolve the Law for finding a beautiful venue yet also keeping price point astonishingly low — $29 for students and $79 for everyone else.  Fortunately, a strong contingent of students from Indiana Law will be there.


Disclosure: I don’t make a nickel from this event. I am there to support the cause.