My letter to the Chief Justice of Oregon in support of granting Diploma Privilege to 2020 Law Graduates. Chief Justice Walters: I write in support of the Oregon Law School Deans’ letter requesting that the Court grant “Diploma Privilege” to permit recent law school graduates to begin legal practice without having to take the Bar Exam. I agree with the Deans’ analysis and, because you know I like to look at data, I want to add information regarding the effect of dwindling numbers of lawyers on Oregon’s Access to Justice crisis. ... (Keep reading)

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In Support of Diploma Privilege for Oregon

Based on the popularity of my interview with Simon Boehme about lawyers using Zoom, Simon and I sat down with Jack Newton from Clio during the pandemic to discuss Zoom. The video conferencing app has become almost ubiquitous since the pandemic began, and many lawyers naturally have concerns about privacy and security risks for new technologies like it. Topics we discussed are: The primary concerns legal professionals have about Zoom How Zoom has addressed those concerns Why Zoom is safe if used correctly—and best practices for doing so The importance of technological competence for law firms How law firms should go about evaluating new technological tools You can listen to ... (Keep reading)

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Why Zoom is Safe for Lawyers

I joined Megan Zavieh to explore the impending massive backlog of cases in the justice system, what lawyers and courts will face when the country reopens after coronavirus, and what lawyers will need to do to prepare to serve clients in a post-COVID-19 world. You can listen to the episode on Lawyers Gone Ethical's Podcast Page, or at any of the links below: Apple Podcasts ... (Keep reading)

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Impending Judicial Logjam and How Lawyers, Courts, and A2J Will Be Impacted

Update April 4, 2020: Zoom has been under quite the microscope this past week, and there’s no shortage of reports about its various shortcomings. Be sure to read all the way to the bottom of this post (there are two updates) to get the whole picture. But I stand by this punchline: If you know what you’re doing with Zoom, it is an effective, affordable, easy-to-use tool for holding group conversations—even sensitive ones. As with any tool, there are ways to screw it up, and I’ll admit that Zoom could have originally made its default settings more intuitive to prevent those screw-ups. But I’ll give them this: Zoom has been ... (Keep reading)

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Zoom is Safe for Lawyers (if you use it right)

Last week I was honored to give the kickoff keynote for the Portland node of the Global Legal Hackathon. The hackathon itself was to follow two tracks, Business of Law and Access to Justice, but I made my case that there are plenty of opportunities to cover both of those topics with product or service offerings at the same time. Unfortunately the talk wasn’t recorded, but I did my best to re-create it in the video below. Take a look to see why the old and established firm PWC is actually doing a better job at Disruptive Innovation than the recently defunct Atrium did (and why the British Columbia Civil ... (Keep reading)

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Disruptive Innovation & the Latent Market for Legal Services

I joined Dan Lear on the Gravity Legal Podcast to share some of the valuable lessons I have learned from my experience while consulting for law firms and working for Getty Images. Show Highlights: John explains who he is, what he does, and how he thinks about the economics of law firms and legal services.  One of the strongest lessons that John took away from Getty Images. Some of the key insights from Getty that John has brought into his consulting business. Bringing agile and lean to lawyers and law firms. The internet has made vast amounts of information available to everyone, for free - how does this affect law?  ... (Keep reading)

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Gravity Legal Podcast

Capturing an authentic, purpose-driven mission statement can have surprising benefits for your entire law practice or law firm. While most people think of a mission as something you do for marketing, studies have shown that purpose-oriented organizations outperform the competition when it comes to engaging customers and employees alike. Read on to learn how to craft purpose-driven mission statement that is succinct, authentic, and motivational. Or, if you prefer interactive learning, be sure to register for my upcoming webinar on the topic. Why Did You Go To Law School? One of my earliest memories from law school was my 1L Property Law professor (now the school’s Dean) asking the 80-some ... (Keep reading)

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Capturing Your Practice’s Purpose

Agile as a comprehensive methodology is fairly new. Although many concepts that are now considered Agile predate the term, we can trace the unified theory to a gathering of software developers and technology managers in early 2001. Frustrated by traditional methods for managing software projects, they gathered in Snowbird, Utah to adopt a Manifesto for Agile Software Development: We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools; Working software over comprehensive documentation; Customer collaboration over contract negotiation; Responding to change over following a plan. That is, while there ... (Keep reading)

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A Brief History of Agile for Lawyers

When I ask law firm leaders about their mission, they often try to shake me off with something like “Oh, we already wrote up a mission statement as part of our marketing work.” News flash: If you think your mission is something that is only supposed to attract customers then (1) it probably isn’t working and (2) you’re missing the point. A recent Harvard Business Review Article sums it up nicely: ... (Keep reading)

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HBR on Your Firm’s Purpose