The Simple Guide to Legal Innovation

by Lucy Endel

Overview

With countless articles and blogs on legal innovation, it is nearly impossible for attorneys to keep pace. The good news: lawyers can continue to learn well into their years of practice! With some updated vocabulary and a few real examples lawyers can learn to wow their clients. The Simple Guide to Legal Innovation: Basics Every Lawyer Should Know will help them on that journey, providing details on the:

• Legal ecosystem
• Rise of legal operations (or legal ops)
• Top innovation concepts lawyers need to know
• and more!

By providing bite-sized lessons on topics that every practicing lawyer should be familiar with, this book will keep attorneys from getting left behind. Author Lucy Endel Bassli is ready to share her hard-won innovation advice with women looking to advance and commercial attorneys looking to shake things up.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781641055871
Publisher:	American Bar Association
Publication date:	04/10/2020
Pages:	254
Product dimensions:	6.13(w) x 9.08(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Lucy Bassli is an attorney, author of The Simple Guide to Legal Innovation and a former Assistant General Counsel of Legal Operations and Contracting at Microsoft. While at Microsoft, she redefined how legal work is done and created one of the first managed service engagements with a law firm.

Lucy was tapped to teach the Legal Operations course for Suffolk UniversityLaw School’s Legal Innovation & Technology Certificate Program; and has a deep partnership with Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, to deliver legal operations consulting to corporate legal departments.

Lucy is a highly sought-after legal industry expert who works with corporate legal departments and law firms on legal service delivery, automation, smart risk-taking and alternative resourcing models. She educates and consults with lawyers to take best practices in the legal industry to a new level. Lucy is also a strategy advisor for LawGeex, an AI legal start-up that automates contract review services.

She is a frequent writer and speaker on legal services innovation, legal technology and legal process outsourcing. In 2015, she was named to the National Law Journal list of Outstanding Women Lawyers.

Table of Contents

Part I Introduction 1

Chapter 1 My Innovation Journey 3

A Journey That Redefined a Career 5

Sharing My Learnings 10

Plea to Innovate 11

Chapter 2 Legal Ecosystem Under Pressure 13

Law Firms 15

Corporate Legal Departments 18

Alternative Legal Service Providers 21

Industry Groups 28

Regulation 29

Part II Foundational Topics 33

Chapter 3 Legal Operations: What Is It and Why Is It Important? 35

Technology and Infrastructure 39

Business Strategy and Planning 42

Project and Program Management 45

Data and Insights 48

Chapter 4 Legal Education Landscape 55

Quick Look at Law Schools 55

Continuing Legal Education: The Gap for Practicing Lawyers 58

Chapter 5 Legal Technology 65

AI, Blockchain, and Other Buzzwords 67

Access to Justice and Technology 72

Competency in Technology 73

Jobs in the Legal Market 74

Model of Competency 75

Technology Implementation 76

Chapter 6 Women and Innovation: The Secret Weapon for Women to Finally Advance 79

Why Women Make Great Innovators 80

Supporting Women as Innovators-Opportunity and Culture 85

Conclusion (a.k.a. the Final Pitch) 86

Part III Just Enough on the Key Topics That Every Lawyer Needs to Know 91

Chapter 7 Talking Points on Each Topic 93

Need to Know #1: Definition of Innovations 97

Need to Know #2: Project Management 109

Need to Know #3: Process and Efficiencies 123

Need to Know #4: Automation 133

Need to Know #5: Value and the Law Firm Managed Services Model 153

Need to Know #6: Alternative Legal Service Providers 167

Need to Know #7: Data 177

Need to Know #8: The Modern Legal Workforce 184

Need to Know #9: Outsourcing Legal 194

Need to Know #10: Corporate Legal Management: Peek Behind the Curtain 209

Conclusion 221

Appendix 223

Endnotes 239

Index 247

Editorial Reviews

"Lucy's book covers a variety of topics with which every lawyer should be familiar. I can't tell you how many times I've sat across the table in meetings with our law firms and they have no idea what I do as Chief of Staff/Head of Legal Operations. This book is a primer on the internal workings of a legal department, giving lawyers what they need to know in order to have meaningful conversations with their clients. It's a must-read for law firms who want to keep their clients happy!"

Stephanie Corey

"This is an invaluable resource for every law firm leader. Lucy's informal style makes her discussion of the complex legal ecosystem approachable; even the busiest lawyer will take time to read it. And Lucy is the 'real deal'; she knows what she writes about, and the examples she offers make the text relatable and credible. A must-read."

Ralph Baxter

"For lawyers who know they must innovate and don't know how to get started, this is a great place to begin. Through engaging stories and concrete examples, this book provides a compelling primer on legal innovation that will help lawyers in every practice area respond to the demands of the twenty-first century legal marketplace."

Andrew Perlman

"With so much talk about legal innovation, it is refreshing to see a simplified explanation of what lawyers can do today to be more innovative in their practice. Lucy's casual style demystifies innovation buzzwords and empowers future law firm leaders."

Heidi Gardner

Carol has gifted us all a substantial professional favor by creating this phenomenal roadmap for networking and business development. Her ability to create a game plan that includes the most effective strategies for skill development and implementation is abundantly valuable. A quick read with palpable ROI right at our fingertips—thank you, Carol!

Traci Ray

Why is networking important? Because it’s the best way to build connections with people who may ultimately turn into clients. This is a must-read book for the introvert and for the extrovert because the author offers something for both: for the introvert, Carol’s tips on how to create a plan to network boosts the introvert’s confidence so that they can feel more at ease when networking. And for the extrovert, her tips on how to stay focused enough to create a networking plan can elevate the extrovert’s networking from just having fun to creating actual networking opportunities. This book reflects not only Carol’s networking experience, but that of the 35 people she interviewed in a variety of professions and industries.

Carole Levitt

Networking should never be a “random act of marketing” but rather a targeted approach to grow the practice and client base you want. I have known Carol for twenty-five years and she is nothing if not strategic in her approach to marketing and business development! In this book, Carol nicely outlines the steps necessary to be disciplined and intentional about your networking without proscribing a one-size-fits-all approach. She provides great examples of how successful professionals have used networking and refined their approaches as their goals changed. Strategic Networking is a book that covers far more than basic networking – it covers referral source strategy, developing and executing on a plan, preparing for strategic conversations with prospects, and so much more. Those that follow Carol’s advice and practical tips are sure to reap great results and personal satisfaction.

Susan Saltonstall Duncan