Beaton Research & Consulting

The 'Voice of Your Clients'​ for Australia and New Zealand's professional services firms.

Website:https://www.beatonglobal.com/
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Beaton Research & Consulting Blogs

Dialogue

Blog Authors

Kenneth A. Grady
Timothy B. Corcoran
Joel Barolsky
George Beaton
John Chisholm
Mark Cohen
Ron Friedmann
Jordan Furlong
Anna Hinder
Warren Kalinko
Patrick Lamb
Michelle Mahoney
Richard Moorhead
Jason Moyse
Heather Suttie
Katherine Thomas
Brian W Tang

Latest from Beaton Research & Consulting

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With Strategies for uncertain times, Heather Suttie makes a positive contribution in the gloomy, global environment from which no legal services provider will be shielded.  It’s said that wars are won by strategy and battles are won by tactics. If that’s the case, then uncertainty around upcoming international political events—Canada’s federal election, Brexit, the 2020 U.S. election and forecasts for a financially-soft 2020 worldwide—may be among the factors that spur discontented clients to force change…
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The remarkable Andrés Jara is a short story emanating from my recent encounter with Andrés. Within 10 minutes of meeting Andrés Jara when he came to say hello in our Melbourne office, I knew I was privileged to be talking with a remarkable legal services pioneer, a visionary and a ‘doer’. Andrés describes himself as a ‘lawyer, entrepreneur, father and husband’. I’d add ‘global leader’. To quote Andrés, “I’m convinced the legal industry needs to change…
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Mark Cohen’s More for less is much more than a slogan explores one of several economic opportunities and cultural challenges facing BigLaw business model firms. Business is about doing more with less. This is its mantra since the global financial crisis. Tech-enabled, data and process-driven upstarts have unseated a pan-industry array of incumbents and ushered in the digital age. Optimization of customer access, satisfaction, and value are common denominators among the disruptors. Law is about doing less…
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Leading thoughts curated by Stephen J. McGarry brings Stephen’s 2019 Leaders in Legal Business to the attention of Dialogue subscribers. The 250 page flipbook is written by 40 leading authors under six main themes, making this a handy, up-to-date and accessible compendium. Leaders in Legal Business is US-centric but in today’s globalising world, the trends are widespread, so there’s value for those outside the US. The themes cover the business of law, structures and business models, technology,…
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I am delighted that Brian Tang has joined our merry band of contributors to Dialogue. Lawyers’ three mindsets for success in the technology age is his inaugural post. Recent news reports are replete with declarations about how the new ABCD technologies (artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, cloud and data) have and will change the services industry, from fintech for the financial services industry, to lawtech for the legal services industry. Lawyers are trained as expert problem-solvers…
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Remaking News of the Week: Jae Um on the state of play in legal innovation features a recent piece in her fabulous analytical style posted on Bill Henderson’s Legal Evolution blog. (1)     “You’ve all seen the headlines, and you’ve all heard the story: 2018 was a watershed year for legal startup funding. Yes, I absolutely agree it was — but I’m not sure we are putting that story in proper context. “In 2014, a search…
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It’s the business model that matters is another Mark Cohen masterpiece dissecting the failings of the BigLaw business model by reference to three pioneering NewLaw model firms, particularly the little-known FisherBroyles of the US.   Law firm sustainability—and more specifically, the future of the partnership model—is a hotly debated topic. Some pundits suggest partnership firms are dinosaurs on the brink of extinction. They point to a Darwinian marketplace with peripatetic rainmakers; migration of work…
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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Legal innovation is pyrexial, the tempo fever is at fever pitch. Ron Friedmann provides evidence and explains why he thinks it’s happening. My views here will be tested and perhaps changed by the ILTACON 2019 conference workshop on 20 August 2019 in Orlando, FL. I will co-lead, with Cheryl Disch (Duane Morris) and Joshua Fireman (Fireman & Company), an interactive workshop focused on practical innovation and how organizations can better develop and vet ideas, and then move…