I don’t recall exactly the point at which I decided to write a book. I suppose I always had it on my bucket list to write one, but somehow I always envisioned it would be a book that was more personal. It turns out that my passion to inspire and enable lawyers to innovate and to encourage them to try new things is very personal to me.
Timing is everything. During my last few years at Microsoft, I began to see that the way I was practicing law had evolved in such a way that was actually quite innovative. All the combined functions and activities related to my way of being a transactional lawyer actually had a name…legal operations.
What I developed was more than a new title or department role: It was a new way of lawyering. Along with this new way, came a recognition from other lawyers that were interested in how I did my work, which I enjoyed sharing with them.
After leaving Microsoft, sharing my insights and expertise turned into a business and I continued my evolution, but this time as a consultant to other corporate legal teams and the law firms that serve them. What I quickly discovered was that the in-house lawyers were not any more “innovative” than the law firm lawyers. We were all trained and practiced the same way, but were compensated and incentivized differently. I also discovered that there is a disconnect between law firms and their corporate clients. It is a basic miscommunication of goals, needs and expectations. I saw that everyone claims to be interested in innovation, whatever that means to them, but have a tough time actually being innovative. Often they simply don’t know where to start and bombardment of the press in the past five years about legal innovation does not help— it is hard to distill and focus. The result? Most lawyers simply stick to what they always do: selling the same legal services and buying them the same way.
That’s exactly the problem I want to solve with my book, The Simple Guide to Legal Innovation. I want to give every practicing lawyer a place to start. I realize it is still a complicated topic and contains many variables, but that is a good thing. The beauty is that there is no one definition of “innovation” and it can be executed in an infinite number of ways. In fact it has to be done differently and it has to be customized and personalized to be successful. In my book, I offer the top ten topics that every lawyer must know in order to internalize innovation for themselves. Some are quite tactical and others more philosophical. Whatever they are, they are just a starting point. Maybe one of them will pique your interest or inspire a conversation with your client or your colleague.
I want to inspire lawyers to think about their practice differently and to try something new, even something small. Innovation is not necessarily a big bang. It is a series of attempts, tweaks, and experiments, any of which can result in something transformational, or at a minimum, be highly valuable. The value can be felt by the client or the actual practitioner. It is ideal when felt by the client, but often even a change for how the lawyer works will also end up having a positive impact on the client.
After all, we practice law for the sake of the client.
