In this week’s Law Firm Disrupted, we look for advice on how to reform the on-campus interview (OCI) process from those who are perhaps the best-suited to rethink it: Summer associates.I’m Roy Strom, the author of this weekly column, and you are best-suited to help me rethink something by reaching out to me at [email protected] .
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Roy’s Reading Corner
On Bar Associations: Speaking of Bill Henderson, I reported earlier this week on a report he wrote for the State Bar of California that set the stage for a task force to consider amending rules limiting law firm ownership to lawyers.Here you go: In his report released Friday, Henderson said the profession’s restriction on outside investors has hindered the creation of new solutions needed by corporate clients while making the cost of personal legal services prohibitive to about 90 percent of the population. The legal profession is at an inflection point that requires action by regulators,” wrote Henderson, adding that “the ideal” would be to allow lawyers and other professionals to work as “co-equals” in legal service organizations. “Some U.S. jurisdiction needs to go first. Based on historical precedent, the most likely jurisdiction is California,” Henderson said. On Bar Associations II: Back in 2015, Toby Brown, chief practice management officer at Perkins Coie, wrote about his experience at a National Conference of Bar Presidents event, where conversation centered on an implementation of Limited Licensure Legal Technicians. The push for the LLLT license began in 2001 and the first licenses were issued 14 years later. Brown said that the bar presidents at the conference began tearing apart the LLLT idea, which he defended. Then Brown had a conversation with a group of bar presidents: “A universal theme was that whatever they might do to disrupt the market and drive innovation will be met with strong resistance by the bar membership.”Brown’s conclusion: For a long time I have held out hope that the legal profession would step up and address the needs of the market: For both lawyers and clients. After this experience, I have come to the hard conclusion: That is not going to happen. As smart as lawyers are, their training and experience have made them a reactive and dogmatic group. In their minds, the way they have been doing it is the only way to keep doing it. Anything else is a threat to the profession and their practice specifically. On Client Choices: Maybe the bar won’t change, but this beer company will ! Change outside counsel, that is. Lee Reichert, a former Lathrop Gage partner now serving as chief legal officer for Molson Coors Brewing Co., wrote about how he chose a Denver-based firm to lead a big-time arbitration against an elite New York firm. That comes on the heels of a report that found that lawyers from mid-market cities were often just as good as big-city lawyers (in terms of quality of work, responsiveness, legal expertise, solutions focus and outcome).From Reichert’s article: In ways that may not have previously been possible or professionally acceptable, we may have hit an economic tipping point where it’s more rational for high-performing lawyers to give up the trappings of the money centers and move to other cities or return back to where they were raised. And because clients can efficiently retain a Denver, Seattle or Minneapolis office for national work, the demand for those lawyers should continue to grow. The calculus has shifted. It’s good for these law firms, and clients like us are reaping the benefits.
That’s it for this week! Thanks again for reading, and please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected]. Sign up here to receive The Law Firm Disrupted as a weekly email.
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