Uncategorized

Subscribe to Uncategorized via RSS

The grade school game seemed simple enough. Grab the other team’s flag without getting tagged. But for a kid like me with not much athletic talent, the chances of being a factor other than getting quickly tagged out were pretty remote. Or so it seemed.

One of the questions I am often asked by young lawyers is how I get to where you are and develop a successful practice and career. 

It All Started With Capture the Flag

I tell them it all started with Capture the Flag.  For the uninitiated, Capture the Flag is a school yard game where the playing area is divided into two territories. Each team has a flag placed somewhere within their side of the field. Players try to grab the flag but if they cross into the other side’s territory they can be tagged and are out. To win you have to get the flag.Continue Reading Thinking Outside the Fence: What a Grade School Game Taught Me About Legal Innovation

Two AmLaw 100 firms are doing something unusual: sacrificing billable hours to train associates in AI.

Ropes & Gray lets first-years spend up to 400 hours (20% of their requirement) on AI training. Latham & Watkins flew 400 associates to DC for a two-day AI Academy.

The revenue hit? Probably minimal. First-years aren’t profit centers…

New research from Disco and Ari Kaplan reveals a striking contradiction in legal’s relationship with AI and eDiscvovery. While 70% of legal professionals recognize AI’s efficiency benefits, only 35% have actually incorporated it into routine processes.

Even more telling: 42% of law firms report zero external pressure to adopt AI solutions. .

The reasons for…

Small firm lawyers keep telling me they can’t afford the AI tools big firms use. They’re not wrong, I’ve heard vendors literally laugh at affordability concerns. So when I came across Descrybe, a legal research platform with free core features (and paid plans at only $10-20/month), it got my attendtion and I dug deeper. Here’s…

When we talk about GenAI for the legal profession we frequently focus on the risks. But Comment 8 to Model Rule 1.1 requires us to also the understand the benefits. Sometimes we make AI a little too complicated.

Two fundamental rules: Don’t put client confidences in prompts and check the output for accuracy. Here is…

I was recently at a charity benefit reception and dinner. An acquaintance (and I stress acquaintance) came up to me, took one look and out of the blue asked, “you’re retired, aren’t you”? For some reason that question was both galling and irritating. It took me a bit to figure why even though I’m sure…

A lot of lawyers think AFAs will save them from AI disruption. They’re wrong.

I’ve been using alternative fee arrangements since the 90s, so I’m not anti-AFA. But the current rush to AFAs as a solution to AI’s impact on billable hours misses the point entirely.

The real issue isn’t how we package our fees.

At its Inspire Conferance, NetDocuments assembled some of legal tech’s sharpest minds to talk about AI’s real impact on legal practice. Zach Abramowitz, Nicola Shaver, Zach Warren, and Jennifer Poon didn’t hold back on the hard questions: Why traditional ROI metrics fail for AI, how ‘AI-first’ firms are disrupting the leverage model, and why many…

Over the past month I have attended more user conferences than I can count. At every single one of them there are presentations and panel discussions about change management particularly for law firms.

I haven’t practiced law full time for a bit and have kind of lost the need for all this focus on change management. I forgot how hard it is for lawyers, and anyone else to change. I was quick to conclude lawyers are Luddites who are just being obstinate when they resist change. As for me, I was sure I could change in a heartbeat if need be. I don’t need no management.Continue Reading My Phone, My Pocket and My Problem: Change Is Harder Than We Think