Legal Mosaic Essays on Legal Delivery

<strong>Legal</strong> <strong>Mosaic</strong>: <strong>Essays</strong> on <strong>Legal</strong> Delivery
not billable hours and profit-per-partner. Translation: new skills are
required for young lawyers to be market-ready whether they work at
law firms, in-house, or for service providers. Those skills include: e-
Discovery, contract management, IP, cyber-security, and project management
to cite but a few.
The parallels between traditional law firms and law schools are striking.
Both tend to overlook that though legal practice is very much the
way it has always been, legal delivery is being transformed. And that
includes the integration of “legal” problems into business and technology
issues. <strong>Legal</strong> delivery has become a three-legged stool of which
legal expertise is but one element. Consider that Illinois recently became
the fifteenth State to adopt Rule 1.1, “(Lawyer) Competence” to
require attorneys to stay abreast of changes “including the benefits and
risks associated with relevant technology.”
“Just being a lawyer” does not cut it anymore. If lawyers do not broaden
their skill base, they could go from a starring to a support role in the
delivery of their services. Don’t believe this? Consider that many large
companies and industry groups are routinely retaining lobbying firms,
crisis management boutiques, and accounting firms to handle some of
their biggest business challenges. Lawyers might identify those challenges
as “legal”, but clients often don’t. In the end, clients, not lawyers,
determine when-and for what-lawyers are required.
Consider also the changing role of in-house lawyers who practice in a
corporate, not a traditional law firm partnership model. They are morphing
from working solely on “legal” matters to supporting business
in an array of roles including corporate governance, cyber-security,
risk management, and other technology and business driven activities.
Simply “being a lawyer” does not fit their new job description
and responsibilities.
41