Innovative Legal Service Applications

Whether through the use of new technology or improved techniques, using innovative legal service applications can make a huge difference in your practice's success.

"This book is about how lawyers can specifically improve their service to clients which will obtain more business. Besides providing numerous specific innovative legal service applications, this book will discuss the theories and actions to create, implement and evaluate innovative legal service applications. This book will provide a jump start for lawyers to enhance their service to clients by suggesting numerous innovative legal service applications. This book does not just say to listen to your clients and give them what they want. Instead, it will provide applications that lawyers can immediately utilize to improve their quality of service to their clients"--

This edited collection brings together a selection of papers originally presented at the Legal Services Research Centre's seventh international research conference held at the Royal Naval Academy, Greenwich, London, 18 - 20 June 2008. The papers, drawn from three continents, shed light on how major legal aid jusrisdictions are facing the challenge of providing, shaping and extending the reach of legal aid in the face of increasing pressure on resources. The papers give an insight into the role of research in the development of legal aid and are linked in their focus on innovations: from schemes to encourage the next generation of legal aid lawyers, to services built around needs of users and communities, to methods for ensuring quality of services and mechanisms to deliver services for, and engage, "hard-to-reach" and disadvantaged groups.

Change has come to the legal profession, as never before. Once hallowed law firms face unprecedented financial pressures. Their corporate clients are negotiating rates and reducing their outside counsel spending. They are also demanding more predictability in pricing, increased flexibility in staffing, and added value from all legal services firms. Lawyers themselves, overworked and worried about job security (if they are lucky enough to have a job), are more stressed and anxiety ridden than ever. To address these challenges, and to improve the delivery of legal services and the daily lives of lawyers, Finding Bliss: Innovative Legal Models for Happy Clients & Happy Lawyers provides creative and disruptive solutions. Authored by the three co-founders of Bliss Lawyers, a secondment firm that is transforming the way corporations and law firms engage high caliber attorneys, the book provides compelling examples of how to achieve greater success--in terms of profitability, productivity and satisfaction. Finding Bliss explores seven key themes to improve legal practice and client service, including: innovation; value; predictability and trust; flexibility; talent development; diversity and inclusion; and, relationship building. In a ground-breaking analysis, Finding Bliss addresses the profession's challenges from both sides of an evolving equation: the structural change within law firms, in-house legal departments, and other legal service providers, and the individual change in today's attorneys seeking to meet business needs while gaining more flexibility and freedom. Through the book's seven themes, Finding Bliss tackles the answers to how traditional and new model firms can more effectively deliver legal services and align the skills of the legal talent pool to better meet clients' needs. With a combination of innovative foresight and penetrating understanding, Finding Bliss provides wisdom and inspiration of how to successfully navigate this critical moment of upheaval and opportunity facing the legal profession. The result? Happy Clients and Happy Lawyers.

“Mitch Kowalski has translated his considerable understanding of tomorrow’s legal profession into an original, provocative and entertaining narrative.” —Professor Richard Susskind, author of The End of Lawyers? “This is the most innovative law practice management book I’ve ever seen. Mitch has deftly combined an engaging novel about the lives of working lawyers with an illuminating treatise on how law firms must respond to extraordinary change in the legal marketplace. Avoiding Extinction is as entertaining as it is instructive -- and it couldn’t be more timely.” —Jordan Furlong, Partner, Edge International “This is a must read for managing partners, and for all lawyers under the age of 50. Written as a parable, once you pick it up it’s difficult to put down. And it literally screams relevance to the lives of those lawyers today who worry about the sustainability of the current model of legal practice. Big firm or small. City or rural – no matter, this book is for you. Can the law be both a profession and a business? Is it possible to escape the tyranny of the billable hour? Is it realistic to imagine being a truly happy lawyer in private practice in the twenty-first century? You bet – and Mitch Kowalski shows us how! —Ian Holloway QC, Dean of Law, The University of Calgary “Avoiding Extinction is the most original, far-thinking and innovative book on transforming the way that law is practised that I have ever read. Mitch has taken the traditional law firm and turned it upside down. In the process he has reworked the law firm model and given us an insight into how a firm could be structured and run. If you are looking for a creative vision into what a new, truly different law firm could look like, then this book is manna from heaven.” —David J. Bilinsky, Practice Management Advisor, lawyer and writer on law practice management and technology. Creator of the law blog, Thoughtful Legal Management.

Some consultants predict that by 2035 more than half of the traditional law firms in the Midsize market will no longer exist. Many midsize firms are feeling the pressure. While Big Law firms crow about their commitment to innovation, most Midsize firms are still trying to figure out where they fit in the new legal landscape that is taking shape.

"Time to get out of Law Law Land and back into the Jungle" Fuelled by advancing technology, new business models, and altered client expectations, the legal industry faces unprecedented change across its entire value chain. Unfortunately, many legal professionals fear the technology train and the convergence of other fields with law. They see legaltech, AI, and bots like "lions and tigers and bears oh my." We (the editors and authors of this book) see opportunity. Although the future may require us to put on "new suits"—it represents an enormous opportunity for lawyers to reinvent ourselves for our own and our clients' benefit. Filled with chapters written by experts in the intersection of law, innovation, and technology, this book provides a global perspective on the diverse legal service delivery ecosystem that will be our future. It provides chapter upon chapter (reason upon reason) explaining why lawyers can and should increase their appetite for disruption in the legal world. So welcome to the jungle and enjoy the ride as we attempt to systematically map the uncharted waters of the future legal realm and simultaneously inspire you to build a new future in law.

This innovative book proposes new theories on how the legal system can be made more comprehensible, usable and empowering for people through the use of design principles. Utilising key case studies and providing real-world examples of legal innovation, the book moves beyond discussion to action. It offers a rich set of examples, demonstrating how various design methods, including information, service, product and policy design, can be leveraged within research and practice.