This post is a data-rich progress report on the Institute for the Future of Law Practice (IFLP, “I-flip”). For readers unfamiliar with IFLP, here are basics. IFLP is an education nonprofit that combines sophisticated training in modern law practice with paid internship for law students. Following a successful multi-year pilot at Colorado Law, see Post 018 (discussing Tech Lawyer Accelerator (TLA) program); Post 113 (TLA-IFLP timeline), IFLP was formed to scale the key learnings…

General counsel exert an outsized influence on the legal market.  Through the open letter below, some of them are taking the long view by trying to influence the health and vitality of the legal talent supply chain. They are looking for other general counsel to join them. Want to make a difference?  Encourage your general counsel colleagues to support this effort. OPEN LETTER SUPPORTED BY GENERAL COUNSEL IMPROVING THE LEGAL TALENT SUPPLY CHAIN Many young…

Legal Ops is a discipline for both buyers and sellers of legal services Today Legal Evolution is delighted to welcome David Cunningham, Chief Information Officer at Winston & Strawn.  I met David several years ago at the CLOC Institute when I asked Connie Brenton for the names of folks working in law firms who were embracing the legal operations movement. The first name she mentioned was David Cunningham. …

Probably not. Maybe Legal Evolution isn’t a blog. Starting today, Legal Evolution will move to a biweekly Sunday publication schedule with occasional off-cycle posts connected to noteworthy developments. Then, over the summer of 2020–from Memorial Day to Labor Day–we’ll resume weekly publication. This is a publication schedule keyed to the academic year and the same as last year. See Post 065 (announcing 2018-2019 schedule).…

Our profession evolves through people. Some are stepping up. Everyday, when I am paying attention, the world is nudging me to let go of something wrong and unhelpful. A friend of mine calls it “dropping the rock.”  The rock is an assumption about how the world operates that can’t be reconciled with an honest evaluation of facts and experience.…

Culture. Character. Practices. Systems. When it comes to empirical research on lawyers, we’re all lightweights compared to Randall Kiser.  Over the last decade, Kiser has authored books on lawyer decision making in the context of litigation, Beyond Right and Wrong (2010), the mindset and work habits of trial lawyers who consistently outperform their peers, How Leading Lawyers Think (2011), and an empirically grounded analysis of the skills and behaviors needed to build a successful legal…

A legal technologist who can write In May, I published Post 092, which provided guidelines for guest contributors.  My primary goal — or more accurately, highest hope — was to find a few professionals who possessed the communication skills to explain very technical but important topics to Legal Evolution readers, particularly in areas related to legal technology.…