The Red Velvet Lawyer

Entrepreneurs as Freaks? Chris Brogan, whose blog I follow daily, is promoting his latest book , The Freaks Shall Inherit the Earth: Entrepreneurship for Weirdos, Misfits, and World Dominators.   He also offered this reading list "for freaks" that looks very interesting.  Ender’s Game . Forget the movie. This is how to think differently. Escape from Cubicle Nation . A classic. A must. Everything I Know – if you know Paul Jarvis , he’s a freak. No really. Everything that Remains . If you’re not following the Minimalists, you need to rectify that. Choose Yourself . Not only is James Altucher quoted and interviewed frequently in relationship to this book, he’s one of the most successful freaks I know. Unlabel . Learn to be a freak from one who has made over a billion dollars from being himself. I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This . Still have to work for the man? Kate White’s brilliant. She’s a ninja of what to know. The In Between . Not sure anyone’s ever

How Lawyers Can Respond  to a  More Demanding, More Competitive Legal Market Kandy Hopkins, at the Attorney at Work blawg, has nicely pulled together some of the presentations, commentary, and reviews of the conference in New York on the topic of reinventing the practice of law. I've blogged on this topic here , here ,  here , here , and here . Kandy's overview says: The daylong conference in New York City gathered more than 800 attendees who watched nearly 40 speakers, in an event “devoted to law, technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship in the legal services industry.” The word on the web from those who attended? While the conference didn’t answer exactly how or when technology will transform the legal industry, it did offer two things not often seen in the industry: hope and possibilities. Here’s some scoop on more things bloggers and others are sharing about the conference and its innovation theme. She then organizes links into five

You'll have to read Richard Susskind's Tomorrow's Lawyers (2013) or his more in-depth book, The End of Lawyers (2008).  Both books are very good and essential reading.   He argues that the shifts in the legal market are permanent, accelerated by the 2008 market collapse, and reflect several things.  First, corporations and in-house lawyers are demanding more-for-less from outside law firms.  This demand undercuts the ability of traditional law firms  to use new lawyers to do document review and due diligence reviews.  My earlier posting in this series talks about my experience as a young lawyer doing exactly these tasks.  In addition, law firms will no longer be able to expect clients to pay for a new lawyer's on-the-job training.  Hence, law firms are hiring associates with some practice experience, de-leveraging the number of associates per partner, and farming out the document review to tech based reviewers.  They are also farming our legal research to Asia

Richard Susskind, in his new book, Tomorrow's Lawyers: An Introduction to Your Future (2013), describes the fundamental shift occurring in the legal field.  The 2008 economic downturn accelerated that shift. His theme is simple: To respond to client needs when they seek more value for the money; when technology can perform routine tasks more cheaply, quickly, and accurately than attorneys; when well-trained lawyers live in Asia and can work globally; when most people still have no access to affordable legal services, the legal profession will "dispense with much of our current cottage industry and re-invent the way legal services are delivered."  He calls the situation a "perfect storm" for reform.   He begins by discussing the business model based on hourly billing.  Typically, a firm uses a large number of associates per partner on an assigned project.  Those associates, in earlier times, worked months on document reviews for litigation and due diligen