In ways that are often self-interested and counterproductive. Why do I keep banging on about inquiry (i.e., asking good questions rather than advocating an opinion or advice)?  Because it’s so important and we’re  so bad at it. I still remember the first time I tracked dialogue in a group of lawyer-leaders.   I was working with an executive leadership team in a global law firm and had recommended they read William Noonan’s fantastic article, “…

Every good writer strives to say something important with an economy of words.  On this score, today’s guest contributor, Anthony Kearns, sets a Legal Evolution record, relying upon a hand-drawn image and 300 words to say something profoundly important about how lawyers interact in groups, particularly with other lawyers. See Post 230. Though Anthony lives and works halfway around the world, it’s hard for me to overstate the impact that he’s had on…

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.…