George Beaton

Firm/Organization: Beaton Research & Consulting
Blogs: Dialogue

Latest Articles

Last year beaton published one of the first reports on how corporate clients view innovation as a strategy for themselves and what they seek from their outside BigLaw firms. The extracts from the findings are illuminating and are worth contrasting with Gartner‘s report on digital transformation of law departments. beatoncompass report on client-led innovation  When asked ‘What makes law firms innovative’ only 15% gave answers related to any kind of technology. To beaton, this is not…
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In Remaking News of the Week: Why Breakaways and Boutiques are Flourishing I feature a piece from LAW.COM titled Good-Bye Big Law, Hello Boutiques. Why These Young Lawyers Are Sold on Smaller Firms. I commend the read and, if you’re inclined, podcast because it cogently reminds larger BigLaw business model firms that they are no longer the talent magnet they’ve been accustomed to for all of living memory.   Good-Bye Big Law, Hello Boutiques was…
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In Remaking News of the Week: Why Breakaways and Boutiques are Flourishing I feature a piece from LAW.COM titled Good-Bye Big Law, Hello Boutiques. Why These Young Lawyers Are Sold on Smaller Firms. I commend the read and, if you’re inclined, podcast because it cogently reminds larger BigLaw business model firms that they are no longer the talent magnet they’ve been accustomed to for all of living memory.   Good-Bye Big Law, Hello Boutiques was…
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Remaking News of the Week: 4 BIG Legal Tech themes in 2019 is a long – and very worthwhile – piece published in Artifical Lawyer on 2 August. It’s tech journalism at its best; I commend readers to invest the time to study 4 BIG Legal Tech themes in 2019 and, as always, form your own views. Please do share your comments. “Loads is happening, the market is evolving rapidly, the world of legal tech…
I’ve based Remaking News of the Week: The law firm as a platform on a post by occasional Dialogue contributor, Ross Dawson’s report on his recent keynote address on Technology Leadership in an Accelerating World at the Oracle Impact conference in Bangkok, Thailand. I’m reporting Ross’ observations in Remaking News of the Week because these ideas from other industries are so relevant to BigLaw firms.  Platform strategy is at the core of much of Ross’…
Remaking News of the Week: End of the BigLaw business model? features a reflection by Richard Tromans in Artificial Lawyer, his always-topical, on-the-money publication. In his July 2 piece, “Is the end of the traditional large law firm model here?” Richard reports this was his main thought after speaking to the leaders of Freshfields Lab in Berlin’s ‘cool Factory innovation space. Is the end nigh? is a big question opines Richard; huge I would say. Like all rhetorical…
Remaking News of the Week: BigLaw investing in their own NewLaw businesses draws attention to Roy Strom’s June 2019 Bloomberg Law piece on Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner’s launch of BCLP Cubed. Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner joins Eversheds Sutherland (Konexo) and Greenberg Traurig (Recurve) with recent additions to the ranks of BigLaw firms entering the NewLaw business (aka ‘alternative legal services providers’). Dialogue readers may remember in 2007 Berwin Leighton Paisner spawned LOD, now a major independent…
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Today Remaking News of the Week features a piece on BigLaw firm differences over entering the legal tech market. I’d phrased issue more as a question of ‘Whether’ or ‘How’? Here are snippets with the link to the full piece at the end. In my opinion, every BigLaw firm needs to have a view on this issue.  Rhys writes “As the boundaries delineating law firms and legal tech providers begin to blur, a debate is…
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Today Remaking News of the Week: BigLaw discounting draws attention to a podcast that hasn’t – at least IMO – received the attention it should. Question: If I’m right, why might this be so? Answer: The closed ranks and conscious denial of BigLaw partners and leaders the world over. Unrelenting price-down pressure is a sure sign that the buyer’s market for BigLaw services is well established. Suppliers’ common response to price-down pressure is to discount…
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Remaking News of the Week: Elevate’s James Odell shares his story is a courageous disclosure about how he resolved the conflict between what he was doing during most of his waking hours and his fundamental values as a human being to break free. James wrote The Pursuit of Happiness: Promise of the New Era on 5 May 2019 on the Elevate Services blog. I commend the three-minute read as a lesson for everyone, most particularly those…