For much of the last generation, the knee-jerk position of many has been that law firms do not change. That’s always struck me as an ignorant and naive point of view. In any sphere, change is ongoing and inevitable. Every law firm that is successful today is successful because someone in its past managed change effectively. Because they operate through a centralised ‘consensus’ model of (non) decision-making, most law firms are not institutionally set up to manage change especially well. Nonetheless, they have many pockets of change and innovation, which sort themselves out through normal organisational winnowing processes.
Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with two leading law firm innovators about how technology is likely to impact the practice of law in the next few years. John Alber is the technology partner and head of the client technology group at Bryan Cave in St Louis. Mary Abraham, counsel at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York, helps lead the firm’s knowledge management efforts. John and Mary recently returned from the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) conference, the leading peer networking organisation for legal technologists.
