As a former trial lawyer and lifelong baseball fan, I was interested to learn about an upstart legal technology company that claims to have developed an Artificial Intelligence system it has applied to litigation. I had a lengthy conversation with its CIO/inventor who explained the system creates complex tables that... read more →
Mar
09
Mar
02
This is the second of a two-part consideration of the affects of self-regulation on the legal industry. Last week's post focused on retail law; this post examines the corporate segment. To compare the impact of self-regulation on the corporate and retail legal segments is to invite the conclusion that lawyers operate... read more →
Feb
24
This is the first of a two-part overview of self-regulation in the U.S. legal market. This installment focuses on the retail segment; the corporate side will be the subject of the second part. Lawyers in the retail segment of the legal market have priced themselves beyond the reach of most... read more →
Feb
17
The phone started to ring shortly after the press reported that Clearspire had died. In fact, it had been sold, but that was of no moment to anyone other than our employees and investors. We had swung for the fences and hit a long fly ball caught at the warning... read more →
Feb
09
The Problem in Context The crisis in legal education–particularly for law students and recent graduates–is well known and has received considerable media coverage extending well beyond the legal arena. Though some consider it symptomatic of a larger broken educational model, legal education is particularly noteworthy because it is post-graduate, professional... read more →
Feb
02
“Lawyers are Condos” I was invited to breakfast the other day by an old friend who is the Managing Director of one of the nation’s most powerful lobbying shops. He has a law degree but never practiced--not in the narrow sense, anyway-- opting instead to become a political operative, first... read more →
Jan
26
Legal Disruption at the Margins Last week's post discussed how the legal vertical is primed for interruption. So why hasn’t something big happened yet? If we follow Clayton Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation, we can identify change at the margins: the rise of legal service providers. They have wrested “high... read more →
Jan
19
Is Disruption Becoming Commonplace? The theory of “disruptive innovation” was coined by Clayton Christensen and popularized by his book, The Innovator’s Dilemma. The theory tracks the process by which an industry dominated by high cost and complex products or services is transformed by innovation marked by certain key elements: simplicity,... read more →
Jan
12
Some friends who run a successful legal consulting boutique called me the other day to wish me a Happy New Year, to catch up, and to talk about their marketing plans for the coming year. “We have decided to concentrate on the AmLaw 200,” one of them said, “so where... read more →
Dec
22
It’s that time of year again when gifts are exchanged–and returned; resolutions are made–and quickly breached; and hopes for the future abound–so long as one does not watch the news or follow social media. So in the spirit of the season, and recognizing that what follows is decidedly aspirational, here... read more →