Law is not an Island Much has been written about the causes and effects–immediate and longer-term–of change in the legal marketplace. Such analysis is a busman’s holiday for lawyers who have a proclivity for identifying “issues” (read: “problems”) but are far less likely to advance solutions. Most everyone agrees by... read more →
Dec
15
Dec
09
The Climate that Propelled the Growth of Lower End Providers When the Association of Corporate Counsel (“ACC”) launched its Value Challenge in 2008, it sought to exact greater value from the AmLaw 200 (the 200 largest U.S. law firms measured by aggregate revenue and size). These law firms had a... read more →
Dec
02
The “Fat Middle" and the Segmentation of Corporate Legal Work “Fat Middle” is a term that has been applied by legal pundits to describe that broad range of legal tasks between “bespoke” work (“bet the company” cases, mega-mergers, major Governmental investigations, etc.) and high-volume, low value tasks (e-discovery, document review,... read more →
Nov
18
It’s easy to be critical of Plaintiff class action lawyers: They are the Oakland Raiders of the legal profession They are more successful than the Raiders, though They are “the one percent” of law (or a good part of it) Detractors call them “ambulance chasers on steroids.” They are aggressive... read more →
Nov
10
With so much being written about the changes afoot in the legal ecosystem, it is a good time to revisit the practical definition of some key terms. Here is a sampling: Chinese Wall: a term applied to a conflict that involves lots of money and the construct by which it... read more →
Nov
03
Life imitates baseball; that much we can stipulate. So too does law parallel baseball. And what better time to explore that parallel than after a thrilling seven game World Series Let’s Start with Farm Teams Long-time baseball fans–those who predate the designated hitter, multiple teams making the playoffs, and a... read more →
Oct
29
Rounds: Learning in the round More than a century ago, Dr. William Osler introduced grand rounds to young physicians at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Osler would rotate around the Hopkins rotunda with medical students and young physicians, stopping along the way to examine patients and to discuss their cases. The objective... read more →
Oct
13
For many years, the legal ecosystem defied change. Law schools had more applicants than they knew what to do with; their graduates entered a welcoming job market; law firms paid ever-escalating salaries and perks to newly-minted lawyers, the most industrious of whom would go on to make partner and punch... read more →
Oct
06
About 25 years ago I was having drinks with the GC of a F10 company whose business would later send my daughters through school. Over a second drink, as we peered out at the skyscrapers soaring above us–we were on the 42nd floor–he said, “So Mark, do you really think... read more →
Oct
01
Law is derived from logic and experience. It has rules to govern its application, penalties for its violation, and remedies for those aggrieved. Yet it tends to be slow, unpredictable, unnecessarily complicated at times, and selectively enforced at others. And then there are the paradoxes that make law even more... read more →