Episode 19: Solicitor Chris talks the joy of innovation, lawyerly risk aversion, and alternative career paths
This episode was all about innovation in law, a topic I and my guest Chris get very excited about. It includes a brainstorm on how to balance the need for innovation with good ol' lawyerly risk aversion. In researching for this episode I came across a press release for a 2016 report on innovation in Australasia that includes the sentence, "The majority of Australasian law firms rate themselves as innovative but there is little evidence to support this claim...". However, it is not all bleak; below are some examples of lawyers already thinking differently and doing cool things to modernise how law is practised. Again, I must emphasise my recommendation that all lawyers read the Marque Lawyers website in its wonderful entirety.
In this episode:
- I refer again to Tim Harford's book Messy, which is interesting because I only gave it 3.5 stars as I was reading it, yet it seems to come up on the podcast all the time.
- Chris refers to Quora as one way he is delivering services in a new way.
Innovating lawyers:
[NB - I offer these as non-exhaustive examples, not necessarily recommendations, as I am not familiar with all the people and systems directly.]
- Marque Lawyers, Sydney Commercial and Litigation Firm, my one true anti-billable hour love.
Simmonds Stewart, North Island Technology Lawyers - Simmonds Stewart is a boutique technology firm with lawyers in Wellington and Auckland who have released a bundle of commercial template agreements for startups to use for free.
Clearpoint Counsel, Melbourne Commercial and IP Lawyers
Clearpoint is another law firm that's thrown out much of the status quo in favour of client service and lawyer wellbeing: they are a commercial and IP firm that offer long term and project-based retainers, kind of like an in-house counsel.
- Justly - New Zealand online tool to create wills, POA documents and the like.
- And finally, LawFest, an annual New Zealand conference on technology and innovation in the legal profession.
Much love
Katie