Photo by Ed Robertson on Unsplash

This week, I’m pleased to welcome back occasional contributor Dan Currell, who in today’s feature post reviews the recently published book, The Trust Revolution, by M. Todd Henderson and Salen Churi. See Post 130.

Dan’s return provides an opportunity to explain his mysterious title (Former Managing Director, AdvanceLaw) in the right side bar.  Dan’s current title is Senior Advisor in the Office of Finance and Operations at the U.S. Department of Education.  But to post that title would arguably require a clarification that Dan’s views are his own and not necessarily those of the current Administration or the Department of Education (in the unlikely event either has views on legal innovation).  Thus, rest assured that “former” in Dan Currell’s title is matter of prudence rather than unemployment.

Prior to his public service, Dan worked with and advised corporate general counsel and law firms through the General Counsel Roundtable (now part of the Gartner), Novus Law, and most recently AdvanceLaw.  Questions about the evolution of the legal sector have continued to live rent-free in his head even after joining the government, so he will be resuming occasional contributions here at Legal Evolution.

On that note, Post 130 is the very best kind of book review, first boiling down an interesting and complex topic and then extending it to something of special interest to readers, which in this case is legal innovation.  Law is supposed to be a learned profession.  See Preamble to Model Rules ¶ 6. To the extent we wonder why this is an important aspirational value, Dan Currell’s learned review provides us with a remarkable clear illustration.