I am thrilled to share that I’ve joined Northwestern Pritzker School of Law as a Visiting Professor of Law for the 2018-19 academic year. I’m very excited to have this opportunity to contribute to Northwestern Law’s many initiatives to continuously improve the value of the education delivered to its students and prepare its students to have an impact in our society. Northwestern Law’s Strategic Plan, “Leading Law,” recognizes that law schools are “educating lawyers for…

Why do so many of today’s problems remain unsolved? Often, we have no shortage of viable solutions. Additionally, in many cases we have a critical mass of people committed to solving the problem. Yet despite abundant ideas, energy, and action, the problems persist. How can we improve? Start by making scientific thinking a habit and using a Mission (or Business-Model) canvas. Scientific thinking is embedded in lean thinking, as illustrated in Toyota Kata. Many…

Legal industry leaders and analysts seem to suggest that United Kingdom law firms are out in front when it comes to legal innovation and technology adoption. The data my research team and I have assembled for the Legal Services Innovation Index lend some support to this. Having just launched this project, I wanted to share a few Tableau Vizzes that summarize the LSII data on this topic. As discussed on the LSII website, it’s important to…

I’m thrilled to launch the Legal Services Innovation Index, Phase 1, Version 1.0: LegalTechInnovation.com My student research team and I are looking forward to input and discussion, receiving submissions of law firm innovations, and working to improve this resource. So far, we’ve received a great response: This is fantastic. It's maybe the best resource I've ever seen emerge in the legal innovation space. Huge kudos to @DanLinna and @LegalRnD. https://t.co/v7IrEiF58k — Jordan Furlong (@jordan_law21)…

In his May 2016 keynote at FutureLaw 2016 at Stanford Law School, Jim Sandman, Legal Services Corporation president, suggested that we rank and assess law firms on their use of technology. He argued that this could accelerate the adoption of technology in law firms and might stimulate investment in the development of new technology that could benefit all who need legal services. This was just one of ten excellent suggestions Jim provided for accelerating technology adoption…

“It’s simple. Nice user interface. I like the questionnaire style.” Comments like these, you assume, refer to an Apple iPhone, Google Search, or some other product hailed for its superior user experience. When is the last time you heard a client make comments like these when discussing a law firm’s legal services? Okay, maybe you’ve never heard a law firm client make comments like these, particularly when talking about legal services of any complexity. But…

Just as other academic units across universities collaborate with industry partners on research and development projects, law schools can do the same. The timing has never been better. Many lawyers have accepted that they need to engage in innovation projects to improve legal-service delivery. At the same time, law schools continue to add experiential courses as required by the ABA and a few have launched legal innovation and technology programs. These developments have produced many…