For today’s feature post (205), Legal Evolution is pleased to welcome back guest contributor Randy Kiser, whom I’ve previously described as the “preeminent scholar of the U.S. legal profession” and the world’s leading authority on legal decision making. See Post 110 (reviewing Kiser’s scholarship and surprising career along with his most recent book, American Law Firms in Transition).
Randy is a Principal Analyst at DecisionSet® and recently served as Scholar-in-Residence at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, where he has made a number of important contributions to our Legal Professions curriculum. Randy is the author of four books on attorney and law firm performance and two upcoming books on professional judgment and legal innovation. He is also the author of Post 111, which is a compelling excerpt on leadership drawn from his most recent book, American Law Firms in Transition (2019).
Legal Evolution is especially honored to be publishing Post 205, titled “Why lawyers can’t jump: the innovation crisis in law,” because it represents a preview of Kiser’s forthcoming book on innovation in the legal profession. I have previously written that “[w]hen it comes to empirical research on lawyers, we’re all lightweights compared to Randall Kiser,” see Post 110, which I can assure you was no throwaway line. Ten years from now, I am confident that today’s essay will be viewed as a foundational part of the new canon on legal professionals (a group that is broader than just lawyers) and innovation.
I started Legal Evolution with the hope of publishing this caliber of content. Thank you, Randy Kiser, for going on this journey with me.