At a recent Practising Law Institute event celebrating the publication of her book, Unprecedented, Jen Leonard sat down for a Q&A to discuss the challenges and opportunities reshaping the legal profession. Leonard, Chair of PLI’s Innovation Council, explored how law firms can respond to AI, evolving client expectations, and talent development challenges. The following edited Q&A highlights key insights from their conversation.
What led you to write Unprecedented, and why did you choose to tell it as a story rather than a traditional business book?
At first, I tried to write a very straightforward business book about the changes in the profession, the history of legal practice, and frameworks for innovation. But when I read it, I thought, “I wouldn’t even want to read this.” It was too dry. Then I tried a version focused on AI and existential change, with a metaphor about a comet coming toward Earth and dinosaurs not seeing it coming. That was too weird.
The breakthrough came when I realized I could tell the story of a law firm going through a five-day retreat. At first, I thought no law firm would ever take that much time away. But then I needed an inciting event that would make such a retreat believable. With so much consolidation happening in the legal industry, I imagined a culture-driven firm under pressure to be absorbed by a much larger firm with a very different identity. That gave the story urgency.
The book includes a number of fictional characters. Were they inspired by people you have encountered in your work with law firms?
Definitely. The characters are composites of people we meet all the time in our work with law firms.
One of my favorite characters is Robert Kim, a senior partner who has spent his entire career at the firm. He is practical, logical, and very heads down. Over the course of the retreat, he begins to realize that when people are talking about succession planning and the future of the firm, he may not really be part of that future. He was inspired by a partner I met at a law firm retreat who was preparing to retire and told me he could not imagine what he would do with his life because he had been practicing law for 45 years.
I wanted to contrast Robert with William Klept, the rainmaker partner who is doing very well in the current system and does not really want to change. He represents the people who have been successful under the existing model and understandably question why the firm should disrupt it.
The junior associates were also important. Alex is tech-forward, enthusiastic, entrepreneurial, and eager to use new tools. But he is surrounded by other junior associates who are anxious about what technology means for their jobs, their development, and their critical thinking.
What makes this moment different from earlier periods of change in the legal profession?
After the 2008 financial crisis, the relationship between law firms and clients changed. Clients demanded more for less, legal operations grew inside corporate law departments, and technology became more sophisticated, especially in litigation. There was innovation, but often it did not really touch the core business model.
Read full interview here
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https://www.pli.edu/catalog/publications/treatise/unprecedented-designing-a-human-centered-law-firm-when-everything-is-changing/447974?tCode=PVI6_ALMBA&utm_source=ALMBA&utm_medium=DISPLAY&utm_campaign=PVI6
