“Millennials are incredibly skeptical of today’s law firm model,” says William Henderson, a law professor at Indiana University Maurer School of Law.
Read this law.com article to learn what some firms are trying to do to counter this belief
Here’s the introduction…..
In an ALM Intelligence survey of new partners last year, a mere 6 percent said large firms were “very well prepared” to respond to changes in the business model driven by clients and technology advances.
With all this in mind, Bryan Cave has developed a straightforward yet remarkably rare strategy for adapting to new, technologically driven change: Ask the associates.
For six years, the firm has worked to cultivate a group of young lawyers who are prepared to confront trends in the industry that will impact their firm when they take over as partners. In 2013, the firm invited all its young associates to a two-day training session on the future of the business of law in St. Louis. Every other year since the firm has invited the same class of about 50 associates back to continue to learn how their business is changing.
“You are the next generation of leaders at the firm. You have the power to make change,” LA-based partner Doug Thompson told associates this past May. “If you’re working for a partner who doesn’t get it, be a disruptor. Make a suggestion to do something different.”
The two-day event, called the Bryan Cave Business Academy, is set up as a group competition. Now-retired partner Jon Alber first invited this reporter to sit in two years ago. The associates who choose to attend are a self-selected group with an interest in technology and the changing business of law. They meet in a futuristic co-working space lined with whiteboards. Two years ago, associates competed in a “hackathon” to develop a new piece of software, with the firm promising $10,000 toward development. This year, associates gave a mock presentation to general counsel for an RFP, utilizing the pricing department, technologists and project managers.
Full article at
