Jeff Carr

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In this week’s special New Year Kickoff Post (282), Legal Evolution is pleased to welcome guest contributor Jeff Carr, a recently retired Fortune 500 general counsel who has, over the years, served as informal mentor and coach to countless legal innovators.

Jeff’s influence is evidenced by the large number of LE posts that reference his ideas, experience, encouragement, and leadership skills.  See, e.g., Post 226 (discussing his business and finance module for IFLP); Post 210 (Jason Barnwell acknowledging Carr’s pioneering work in legal department management); Post 190 (discussing Carr’s diagnosis of law’s leadership gap and fundamental incentives problem); Post 112 (discussing Carr’s Leader-Manager-Operator framework); Post 078 (Carr discussing positive experience with IFLP intern); Post 056 (discussing Carr’s “hot-wash” practice and its influence in leadership course at IU Law); Post 052 (Jae Um’s discussing Carr’s “massive passive resistance,” or MPR, change management challenge);  Post 008 (citing Carr ACES model in context of diffusion theory).
Continue Reading Guest contributor Jeff Carr (281)

Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better.

Nothing I have read over the last several years haunts me as much as the following line from Gillian Hadfield: “People who feel as though the rules don’t care about them don’t care about the rules.”  Rules for a Flat World at 79 (2017).

When I first read those words, I can remember thinking, “this explains the 2016 presidential election,” though the name Donald Trump appears nowhere in the book. Likewise, for the next four years, Professor Hadfield’s observation offered a remarkably concise explanation for the public’s growing indifference to democratic norms, democratic institutions, and the Rule of Law. Then the events of January 6th offered a disturbing punctuation point.
Continue Reading Just not good enough (226)

Our profession evolves through people. Some are stepping up.

Everyday, when I am paying attention, the world is nudging me to let go of something wrong and unhelpful. A friend of mine calls it “dropping the rock.”  The rock is an assumption about how the world operates that can’t be reconciled with an honest evaluation of facts and experience.
Continue Reading Dropping the Rock: three examples (112)

IFLP is proud to collaborate with the above list of innovators and early adopters.

Later this month, the Institute for the Future of Law Practice (IFLP, or “I-flip”) will celebrate its one year anniversary. Before that, it was just an idea in the minds of a few dozen lawyers, legal educators and allied professionals.  In…