Contract optimization is more about business than legal. In 2019, the world collectively achieved a GDP of $87.5 Trillion.  This economic activity results from millions, if not billions, of transactions for the purchase and sale of goods and services, with each transaction being governed by some form of contract.  Remarkably,  even with minor improvements to our horribly inefficient contracting process, global GDP in 2019 likely would have exceeded $90 Trillion. Now would be a…

Count me among the skeptics. We are all familiar with the allegations that CEOs of publicly traded companies manipulating their earnings from period to period by such actions as booking discretionary expenses at the end of a strong quarter or deferring a major sale until the beginning of a new period.  No one thinks that these actions are laudable from an integrity standpoint, and sometimes they are sufficiently flagrant to result in securities-fraud allegations. Thus,…

Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better. Nothing I have read over the last several years haunts me as much as the following line from Gillian Hadfield: “People who feel as though the rules don’t care about them don’t care about the rules.”  Rules for a Flat World at 79 (2017). When I first read those words, I can remember thinking, “this explains the 2016 presidential election,” though the name Donald Trump…

Big data insights on tap, just like water, gas, or electric. Every day of the year buyers and sellers enter into millions of contracts covering the purchase and sale of billions of dollars worth of goods and services.  Each one of these transactions requires each party to analyze the governing agreement to assess whether the agreement fits within its risk profile. This analysis commonly is performed in one of two ways: (1) the party accepts…

The pandemic upended the workplace as we know it.  What does the future of work hold for the legal industry?  Recently, I left a great job.  I did it without another job lined up, in the middle of a global pandemic and record levels of unemployment.  Many people have been kind enough to ask what’s next and a few have asked why I would do such a thing.  After some internal debate, I decided to explain both on Legal Evolution.…

The S-curve is real.  If we’re not growing, we’re dying. Through client work that admittedly spans a broad swath of the legal industry, I am fortunate to spend a lot of time with law firm leaders and other attorneys at varying stages of their careers.  Through these discussions, I have learned why some attorneys choose to work for law firms while others–with the same stellar pedigrees–prefer to work for alternative legal service providers (ALSPs).…

As editor of Legal Evolution, I’m always on the lookout for next-generation talent, as they have the advantage of fresh eyes.  See Post 201 (noting the “next generation” as a priority for future content). Today, with a guest post from Yvonne Nath, see Post 223,  I’m delighted to deliver some of the fruits of that ongoing search. Back in 2017, during the first year teaching Diffusion of Innovation in the Legal Industry at…