There is a lot written about innovation. A lot of it is marketing, posturing and bullsh*t. A small portion of it is useful. This Q&A with Anusia Gillespie has me thinking about several things well beyond the intended scope of the post. The opening line, “The biggest mistake that I made as the US innovation lead at a global law firm was in trying to teach lawyers how to ‘do’ innovation-how to do my job.” How many of us try to get lawyers to ‘do’ aspects of our jobs as we educate them? The quote from Tess Blair was surprising and telling, "The business side of a law firm is where innovation goes to die." That caught my eye because I keep telling my group that we're all about supporting the business and practice of law. I'd love to have more context to Tess’ comment. A culture issue? A management clash? “Upon reflection, my hypothesis is that the failure lies in the resources I provide – they are far too advanced for the newly acquainted.” Crawl-Walk-Run. It works for everything. Finally, there is, “Together, let's accelerate the NewLaw tipping point.” As an industry, we've been talking tipping points for decades. Inside the legal bubble where lawyer still sells to lawyer, I have to ask, are the clients ready to be tipped? Read more at Legal Evolution.
Published July 12, 2021.
