Innovation Part 3: ALSPs Are Expanding and Aren’t “Alternative” Any More

04.17.19 | Susan Duncan

[Editorial Note: We apologize for the error in our last post Innovation Part 2: Insights from the Experts. We mistakenly referred to Bill Deckelman as John. ] The most recent Alternative Legal Service Providers 2019 Report* was released in January. In the two years since the survey was conducted last, the ALSP market has grown…

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Innovation Part 2: Insights from Experts

04.03.19 | Susan Duncan

The 2019 Legalweek conference hosted presentations by many experts who represented various players in the legal ecosystem: law firms, in-house lawyers, technology companies, ALSPs and consultants.  In our prior post, Innovation Part 1: What It Is and What It Isn’t, we provided the framework for how to think about innovation in law. In this post,…

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Innovation Part 1: What it Is and What it Isn’t

03.20.19 | Susan Duncan

With so much buzz about the need for innovation in the legal profession, it can be overwhelming and also very misleading. Many misconstrue that innovation in law firms is all about technology.  It isn’t.  Some of the most fundamental innovation that is occurring has to do with how work is done, why, by whom and…

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Practice Groups Part 2: Practice Group Leader as Strategist

11.28.18 | Susan Duncan

It is surprising how many law firms, their leaders and partners eschew the discipline of planning and strategy. Many firms still don’t require annual plans or even the process of planning from their partners, or practice groups and many don’t even have a strategic plan for the firm. A survey conducted by Patrick McKenna and David…

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Change Management 2: Strong Leadership and Collaboration are Required to Drive Change

10.24.18 | Susan Duncan

Making meaningful and sustainable change will require collaboration and strong leadership. As discussed in Change Management Part 1, effectuating change in law firms is more difficult than other professions and industries and managing partners cite the reluctance or refusal of the vast majority of their partners to change.  Given the dynamic shifts occurring in the…

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Change Management Part 1: The Framework

10.10.18 | Susan Duncan

The instability, disruption and resulting anxiety in the legal profession at times feels like a roller coaster: ups and downs, twists and turns, peaks and valleys, fast and slow, feelings of risk, exposure and vulnerability and a lack of control over our destiny. We are more or less along for the ride, which admittedly is…

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A Race to the Bottom for the AmLaw 200 and Below? Doesn’t Have to Be.

06.14.18 | Susan Duncan

A month ago, at a conference on change management, a managing partner of an AmLaw 200 firm asked a question that likely weighs on the minds of most AmLaw 200 managing partners, some of the AmLaw 100 firms and many of those below the top 200. His question was: We hear all the time that…

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Law Firm MDPs Part 4: Service Delivery Solutions

11.15.17 | Susan Duncan

In this fourth and final post on law firm multi-disciplinary models, we discuss new tools and resources, many of which incorporate technology, process improvement and knowledge management to enable more effective service delivery and enhanced and automated access to information.  Law firms have either developed their own tools and products or incorporated existing technologies into…

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Law Firm MDPs Part 3 – Integrated Multi-Disciplinary Practices

11.01.17 | Susan Duncan

Recognizing the need to approach client problems and needs with broader and deeper substantive disciplines than just legal expertise, law firms have evolved their service offerings to include formal, integrated teams of lawyers, consultants and other professional experts. As early as the 1980s, law firms began to form separate subsidiaries  affiliations and joint ventures to…

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Law Firm MDPs and New Delivery Models Part 2 – Subsidiaries

10.18.17 | Susan Duncan

In an effort to offer existing and new clients fuller capabilities and solutions, many law firms have developed wholly-owned subsidiaries often comprised of experts in an industry or service specialty who are not lawyers. As we reviewed in our last post, Law Firm MDPs and New Delivery Models Part 1 – A Primer, clients today…

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Law Firm MDPs and New Delivery Models Part 1 – A Primer

10.04.17 | Susan Duncan

In our post Who Do Law Firms Compete with and Why? we described the fierce competition that law firms face today, noting that much of that competition is increasingly  coming from non-law firm legal services providers, consulting firms and the Big 4, which have some of the largest law firms in the world outside the…

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Part 3 of 3: The Next Normal – What Can Law Firms Learn from Netflix?

08.04.14 | Susan Duncan

Our two prior blog posts examined a number of trends, challenges and changes that will affect legal service businesses of the future. “Legal service business” is used here intentionally to suggest that many legal services of the future will more frequently be provided by non-traditional law firms (many of which won’t even be called or…

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Part 2 of 3: The Next Normal – What Talent and Skills Will Progressive Law Firms Need?

07.02.14 | Susan Duncan

In Part 1 of 3: The Next Normal – Will the Traditional Law Firm Model Survive?, we suggested that the traditional firm model will not survive in the future (or perhaps even the present for many.) The law firm or legal service organization of the future will employ numerous types of people who have various skills,…

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The Future is Here: 10 Trends and What Your Firm Should be Asking Itself

07.11.13 | Susan Duncan

Two things are clear right now. First, dramatic changes have already occurred and will continue to occur in the legal profession (actually, most are affecting all sectors of the economy.) Second, these and other new changes will be permanent, i.e., this is not a pendulum swing that will swing back. The marketplace is driving these…

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Are Project Management and Process Improvement Just Fads?

05.30.13 | Susan Duncan

Like many things occurring in the profession right now, this is a trend that is here to stay. Clients want their legal work done faster, cheaper and smarter and they know that there are good practices in place in other professions and businesses that can be adapted to the practice of law.  Companies like GE…

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