This week, we are fortunate to have a special guest contribution from Jason Moyse, a very talented legal innovator and entrepreneur based in Toronto. After cutting his teeth as a legal counsel and program manager at Xerox Canada, Jason has been an active participant in some North America’s and the UK’s most interesting and important legal innovation projects, including LawMade (principal), MDR Lab (advisory board), Trustbot (advisory board), CodeX (fellow), Elevate Services (Manager, Legal Business Solutions), and the MarS LegalX cluster team (industry lead).
In early June, Jason travelled to Redmond, Washington to serve as outsider chronicler of Microsoft’s Trusted Advisor Forum. The result is Post 104, which is deep dive into a workshop session on Business Design Thinking created by the folks at Bold Duck Studios. Last fall, Jae Um and I did similar reports on a session designed by Casey Flaherty. See Post 068 (Henderson), Post 069 (Um).
Why did the three of us travel to the Pacific Northwest to attend an internal legal department event? The answer is pretty simple: We believe that what is happening at Microsoft is at the cutting edge of modern law practice. Quitely literally, Jason Barnwell and his team in the Legal Business, Operation and Strategy group are on a mission to reinvent how law is practiced within and for large global corporations. Further, they are more than happy to publish their playbook on the theory that it might incrementally help the legal eycosytem speed up in their direction. Hence, their invitation to us.
It is remarkable that Microsoft’s legal department has made a decision to create what they need rather than wait for it. As long as Microsoft is willing to be this ambitious, Legal Evolution will be there to serve as its conduit to the broader legal world.
Also, hats off to Jason for accepting this assignment. Summarizing our future is not for the faint of heart.