Walker Clark
Worldview Archives
Making Sense of the Chaos
The erratic attempts at policy coming from the Trump government in the United States have made commercial and financial prospects more unpredictable than perhaps in any period since the 1930s. Many investors and business people, as well as traditionally friendly governments, now wonder, often with good reason, whether the United States can be trusted to honor its international commitments at any level of enterprise or international engagement.
These forces and risks ultimately affect almost every law firm with any significant international or regional practice. This is a real challenge for the legal profession, because clients traditionally have looked to lawyers and law firms for analysis and problem solving in uncertain times. Yet the business futures of many of those firms are perhaps even less certain than those of their clients.
Every law firm — without exception — needs a Chief Innovation Officer.
No matter how large, how famous, or how successful your law firm has been in the past...
...if you want to increase the chances of your law firm still being in business ten years from now, you must have a Chief Innovation Officer.
Sorry, there are no exceptions.
Understanding Paradigms
Two of the biggest challenges for the Walker Clark "futures practice" are to break down the paradigms that prevent our clients from seeing the future — and sometimes even today — clearly, and to stimulate genuinely innovative responses.
New Paradigms and Old Lessons for Cyberlawyers
Technology has been a fundamental component of the practice of law for a quarter-century; but most law firms have failed to understand how it is fundamentally changing – indeed, already has fundamentally changed – the practice of law.
Law firms must continue to evolve. Not all will be able to do so.
Will the “lawyer of the future” be a computer?
Artificial intelligence will be as much a part of the "law firm of the future" as desks and paper have been for the past 200 years.
It also can be part of the "law firm of today."
This is one of ten most frequently read posts in the Worldview Archives, with more than 11,000 views since it was first published in 2017
The “Law Firm of the Future” or the Future of the Law Firm?
The International Bar Association has announced a conference on "Building the Law Firm of the Future," to be held in November 2017 in London.
It sounds interesting.
But I wonder if they have the topic backwards.
Should your law firm be thinking about alternative business structures?
The renewed interest in "alternative business structures" (ABS) is not something that applies only to the largest law firms. Given the right regulatory environment, client base, and practice areas, even small firms can realize substantial improvements in profitability and client satisfaction.
However, an ABS might not be right for every firm.
Innovation and Competitive Advantage
For law firms, true innovation requires much more than wishful thinking powered by determination. It requires a solid business rationale. It also can be very hard work.
What if we go to a three-day workweek?
What if your managing partner announced that lawyers in your firm were required to work only three days per week and could take unlimited holidays?
What would be the reaction of partners in your firm?
Chaos, Control, and Change in Law Firms
By training and experience, most lawyers tend to be risk-adverse. This can sometimes make change difficult, especially when the changes are a little threatening to those in power, or when they challenge long-held paradigms about how things should be done.
This is one of ten most frequently read posts in the Worldview Archives, with more than 14,000 views since it was first published in 2013.
