My friends Jim and Sheila love dogs. They used to share their residence with a rescue dog named Henry. Dragons live forever, but not so little dogs. So when Henry got sick and his demise was imminent, Jim built a coffin for Henry so that it would be ready when needed to carry Henry to his final resting place in the woods.
While Jim was building his coffin, Henry would see him working on it. After it was finished, Henry could see the coffin, just sitting there and waiting for him.
This article is about what I want to see from the Legal Tech industry. My basic message is: You technology folks are bringing our profession to its knees. Now we need you to sort out the mess and chart a way out for us. The clock is ticking. Get on with it!
The article resides on Appara’s website. You can access it here:
Many years ago, I knew a young couple who were very much in love. The young lady loved the idea of pleasing her parents and impressing her friends by marrying a good-looking boy with a promising career. The young man was in love with the idea of having a pretty girl on his arm who would respect and adore him. They were both in love with the idea of moving on to the stage of life that today’s young people call “adulting.”
“Micromanagement is like cutting grass with scissors; it’s tedious, ineffective, and a waste of time.”
~ Lisa McLeod, author and keynote speaker
My wife’s name is Maureen. I love Maureen more than I love life itself. I also annoy her a fair bit. One of the things that I do to annoy her is clean the kitchen frequently. So frequently, in fact, that she has accused me numerous times of cleaning stuff up before she has finished with it.
There is a plumbing company out in the country where I live, whose slogan is, “We answer the phone.” It should not be a big differentiator, but it is. I have no idea how good they are at plumbing, but they answer the phone. That tells me that they care about their customers. So, why not call them?
“It is an ill wind that blows no good.”
~ John Heywood
I recently wrote what I thought was a rather nifty article about the ills in the legal profession, and concluded, as I often do, that many of them can be traced to a culture of greed in Big Law. I got that part past my editors without a problem.
Those of you who have read my stuff before may have seen my article titled, “Beyond Pizza and Yoga: Let’s Get Serious About Mental Health for Lawyers,” in which I advanced the theory that billable hour expectations, a dearth of mentoring, cultures of disrespect, and lack of transparency around career paths, all contribute to the mental health crisis in the profession.
Back a long time ago when I had a modicum of influence in a law firm, I used to include a sentence in every offer letter to associates to the effect that we expected our lawyers to be part of the solution to issues that they encountered at the firm, not part the problem. This was a contractual obligation to come forward to management to address issues that they might have, and to help us to resolve them. They were not supposed to just whine about whatever issues they encountered.
“Lead, follow, or get out of the way” is an expression which some attribute to Thomas Payne. Tommy died in 1809, so this is hardly a new turn of speech.
And yet, back in my law firm (and I suspect in many others), there were partners who never came to terms with it.
It is virtually certain that every lawyer with real intelligence who plans to stick around the profession for at least another five years is going to use artificial intelligence in their practice. (Unfortunately, so will every lawyer without real intelligence, but that is a topic for another day.)