Brad Molotsky on Keeping up With 'New Trends and New Ideas'

Brad A. Molotsky of Duane Morris is a Law Journal Innovator of the Year finalist. The below responses were lightly edited for clarity and style. 

What are some of your proudest achievements in 2022? 

We were able to get a variety of deals (both Opportunity Zone and standard development deals) done in an increasingly tricky environment), we continued our monthly ESG calls with various industry experts to learn and share information with our clients and prospects and we focused additional time on forever chemicals (i.e. PFAS/PFOS) and learned about technology and methods to limit, trap and in some instances eradicate PFOS in water which will likely become an increasingly important issue. Working increasingly more in the waste to energy space and helping clients effectively use Inflation Reduction Act benefits for their projects which is both fun and interesting. Golf game still sucks but enjoy spending time with friends on the course so not an achievement really but … Innovation often refers to technology, but it means more than that. What are some routes to effective innovation that might be overlooked?

Staying at and ahead of the curve when it comes to public policy and risk and being able to help clients navigate these areas—by way of example, climate risk and its impact on wild fires, flood, and adaptation and being able to insure and evaluate impact before there is a catastrophe has been an increasingly interesting and important area that we are helping clients with. Using the IRA benefits to help offset costs for designing and implementing resiliency strategies has also proven to be a very interesting area of the law as has been hosting our monthly podcast on ESG where you never know who is going to sign up and log in and listen—really fascinating. While I would not per se call it innovative, focusing our clients where others are not really looking or investing brain space to garner deal level funds, loan proceeds or tax credits has been a very frothy place of late and very interesting to our client base.

What must the leaders of law firms and other organizations do to ensure they are being receptive to new ideas, and to improve the legal profession’s reputation for being innovative?

Understanding that we, as lawyers, are not just there to render legal advice alone, but are there to add value to a deal or a matter is where we can be a bit more innovative. Many do not share my view here which is fine, but I have found that sharing information with clients and prospects about a program or a deal or an RFP tends to set us a bit apart from their other service providers who do not view this as part of their job. Keeping my clients updated on new trends and new ideas is where we can be innovative and show our clients that we care and are paying attention to their business and their needs. Keeping abreast of AI and how it can be used to speed up delivery of service and reduce costs for our clients will also be the current and future of what they are looking for so those not focusing here will likely be playing some serious catch up in the near future. Thinking about crypto and how it will or may affect the delivery of legal services, falls into this same bucket of being aware of what is going on in the marketplace, thinking about impact on our clients and looking to risk mitigate with them for the likely risks is normally very appreciated and a bit innovative.