The legal professional is facing the Innovator’s Dilemma.  The lower-margin jobs are outsourced to tech companies that use programs to run discovery and other mundane legal tasks.  However, these companies are becoming more efficient at doing the work associates complain about.  What happens when these companies create better products that provide semi-legal services cheaper and more efficiently than human lawyers?  The landscape of the law is likely to change.  As for now, the majority of the legal work is protected by the ABA (i.e. you must have a license to practice).  However, there is debate about how ABA rules should change to adopt to the new technological age.  How will the legal practice adapt to these new innovations?

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/science/05legal.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1

Here is a good example of attorneys realizing their is a need for low cost and efficient legal services, and giving just that to clients.  Legalbase was started by people with experience in media, law, and entrepreneurship, and is a nice illustration of law being the primary service of a start-up, much like LegalZoom in the US.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160217005797/en/Legalbase.de-Germany-online-platform-legal-services

 

This article demonstrates how using the design thinking method of putting yourself in the shoes of the consumer can be a very useful skill for attorneys interacting with clients, and thereby help attorneys provide superior services for those clients.

http://www.lawtechnologytoday.org/2014/07/design-thinking-in-a-future-legal-practice/

 

In this piece Forbes gives an interesting perspective on how the legal industry is still down in many ways, but how the legal industry has actually become a great place for entrepreneurs.

Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/carisommer/2013/07/24/how-entrepreneurship-is-reshaping-the-legal-industry/#3cf0f7ae1cfe

Recent Chicago Crains article highlights a healthcare angel type fund for doctors looking to create a new businesses. The fund provides funding to other doctors or healthcare professionals looking to create a healthcare start-up. Unlike other angel funds this fund is run by healthcare investors who understand the business and can not only provide capital but can also provide insights to the industry.

 

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20160220/ISSUE01/302209998/doctors-form-their-own-angel-funds-for-health-care-startups#utm_medium=email&utm_source=ccb-morning10&utm_campaign=ccb-morning10-20160222

Design Thinking Comes of Age

By applying a designer’s thought process, legal entrepreneurs are able to critically assess the client experiencehttps://www.marsdd.com/news-and-insights/lawyers-turned-entrepreneurs-%E2%80%8Athe-times-they-are-a-changin/

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/27/franchisees-fight-back-against-15-wages.html

Seattle recently raised the minimum wage requirement to $15/hour. Franchisees have brought suit claiming that the new legislation unfairly burdens them, and that they should be recognized as small business owners. As cities seem to be enacting laws that make minimum wage higher than the federal minimum wage ($7.25/hour), it will be interesting to see the effects. The standard claim against raising wages argues that employers will lay off or not hire as many employees. One market study in this article found that hotels would actually pass the cost over to consumers by raising room rates. Generally speaking, I am inclined to think that companies will not let this effect their bottom line, whether that means less employees or passing the costs to consumers, I’m not sure.

Excellent resource compiled by the smart folks at Stanford Law School on applying design thinking in the legal landscape. Includes slideshows, case studies, and best practices for getting past the buzzwords and into real applications of design thinking.

Open Law Lab

Insights on how design thinking may help lawyers better manage their practice. While this article seems to undervalue the importance of prototyping and client empathy, it does an excellent job in discussing how the existing compensation structures at larger law firms serves as a blockade to the collaboration necessary for design thinking.

Design Thinking in Legal Practice