Tag: TRU

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In Demand: A Business Savvy Lawyer

Throughout my schooling and work experiences thus far I have always contemplated the importance of being a self-starter. Being motivated and having the ability to motivate others, working towards pre-set goals, and focusing on nurturing relationships are all components of this. The overarching theme, however, is having that ‘entrepreneurial spirit.’

But what does entrepreneurial spirit really mean? More importantly, how is that relevant for us as future lawyers?

I believe it is very important and highly relevant! The practice of law is such that you are your own brand. Therefore, you will be perceived in the manner that you portray yourself as an individual. This is true, regardless of the firm you work for. Whether you come from one of the national firms or a small to mid-sized firm, you the lawyer are the service provider. Therefore, building your own brand is very important. The key to this is being cognizant of this fact before you enter the practice.

I believe your personal brand and having a sense of entrepreneurial spirit are two sides of the same coin. I have read many books on personal development and the common thread between them is the importance of building daily practices for yourself to ensure long-term success. Building habits that support entrepreneurialism and integrating these behaviours into daily life should be the first steps to building our practice.

Your Personal Brand

Now what does that really mean? As Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon famously said: “Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room.”

As I mentioned earlier, it really comes down to your personal interactions with a client that make all the difference not necessarily which firm you work for. Whether or not a client wants to do business with you is based on the experience they have had with you and the service you have provided. So it is important to focus on your own core values and build disciplines to create your own unique personal brand.

I suggest taking some time for yourself and really thinking about what it is that you really want from your practice, where do you see yourself in a few years, and most importantly how do you want to be known? You don’t need to have any business knowledge or background to know that building and nurturing client relationships is key to any prospering business’ success. But what will set you apart?

In a non-law interview I had a few years ago, one of the interviewers asked me to describe my ‘personal brand’ in 3 words. This was an interesting question and really got me thinking – so perhaps this is a way for you to start thinking about this idea as well. These are some questions you can ask yourself to help you in determining what defines you:

When others see something as a problem, are you that person who sees the opportunity? Are you that person who is willing to step out of their comfort zone to really gain the most out of an experience? Are you focused on pushing paper or really digging deep to provide the best value to your clients?

To the point about providing the best value, one of my favourite authors, Robin Sharma says it well, “the market place rewards value delivery.” I believe this is a very key insight. Once we begin practicing law, if we concentrate on providing the most value to our clients, we can really set ourselves apart! Along with trying to provide the best value, Robin suggests focusing on your “craft” and gaining mentors along the way to help pave your path for a successful legal career.

Which leads me to my next point: surround yourself with people who understand your vision, who can help you reach your goals and help you become an expert in your area. A mentor can really assist in shaping your future. They can help you determine what your strengths are (personal brand) and keep you motivated to achieve the highest levels of success.

Entrepreneurial Spirit

This phrase may be overused, but it is relevant to the field of law. Whether you are working at a big law firm, which may not require you to seek out your own clientele (yet) or whether you are at a smaller firm, eventually you will be required to establish your own client base or contribute to the existing client relationships.

In my opinion this is a great opportunity and also very exciting. You will be able to focus on your set of clients and provide them tailored advice. The way to get a head start is by developing values that push you to really think like an entrepreneur.

There are a few reasons to develop an entrepreneur’s mindset. First, it will separate you from the rest of your cohort, who may not have yet thought about the future and the realities of the legal field. Second, you may eventually decide to drop out of the mid-to-large sized firm and create your own legal business. In which case, it is absolutely essential to have that inner confidence to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities in a ‘business-oriented’ manner.

Here are some ways to go about this: Read a book on a successful self-made entrepreneur, listen to unique leadership speakers (Robin Sharma is great), or just take the time to self-reflect. This is not an overnight realization, nor is it only for those that are already ‘business savvy’ – this is a life-long pursuit and you can begin working on it today!

As we approach our careers, these skills will help us build a strong foundation and will be useful in the challenging but hopefully rewarding legal practice.

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Transitions

Let me give you an image of me as a starting-out lawyer.  I’m on the phone with a client – a terrifying proposition in itself.  Client is talking about something incomprehensible (some Wall Street acronym or something) and assuming I not only know what it is but have an informed and expert opinion about the thing as it relates to the client.  I am googling this thing while on the phone, hoping the client can’t hear me typing.

Transitioning to law school to practice was like that.

One of the reasons L21C exists is that I wanted to try to fill what I think is a gap in legal education in preparing students for this transition, from law student to professional.  Law school does not provide students with much understanding of or information about the practicalities of practice, or about what the ecosystem of the legal services world is like.  It’s a big chasm indeed from pondering the significance of peppercorns to billing, spreadsheets, attempting to tame clients, navigating the internal politics and ego-bruises of working in multiple teams, and googling financial jargon as quietly as possible.

I often hear that it’s not an appropriate goal for law school to prepare students to be “practice-ready,” that there is no substitute for real-world experience and hands-on training.   As far as it goes, I think this is true, even just obvious.  It doesn’t follow, though, that law school can’t do more to prepare students for the transition to practice.  We can, and we should.

That’s the aspiration of L21C: to make students, if not “practice-ready,” at least a bit more ready for the challenges, surprises and mysteries of the coming transition to practice.  To demystify the mysteries, make at least some of the surprises less surprising, and, I hope, stir up some excitement about the challenges.

L21C is also transitioning this year.  Last year it was a completely brand-new course, still a prototype really, and I really was not sure what to expect.  This year is … well, honestly not that different, but it’s no longer completely brand new and I have a little bit more idea what to expect.  Last year’s class was a fantastic group who did some truly inspirational work.  Therefore, my expectations are very high.  I’m looking forward to equally great things from this year’s group, possibly even greater.  Go on, challenge yourselves!

The design of the course is substantially the same as it was last year, but there are some modifications.  The first few weeks are more structured, with fewer guest speakers and more lectures and activities that I planned.  In the later weeks we have many really amazing guest speakers, a panel, a field trip to Kamloops Innovation Centre, and plenty of time built in for teams to work on their LawHacks projects.  The idea is that in the first part of the semester students will get a solid understanding, from the lectures, readings and class activities, of the themes we are covering, and in the later part of the semester the group will be very well equipped to engage with the wonderful leaders and thinkers who are joining us as guests.

Of course I can’t end a post about transitions without mentioning the central focus of this course, the Big Transition: what’s happening to the profession itself.

Richard and Daniel Susskind, the authors of one of our course books (The Future of the Professions), say that the legal world “will change more radically over the next two decades than over the last two centuries” and the legal profession is “on the brink of unprecedented upheaval” (pp. 66-67, internal citations omitted).

Jordan Furlong, writing in the Canadian Bar Association Legal Futures Initiative publication Do Law Differently: Futures for Young Lawyers – another of our course texts – says “[a]lmost everything about career choices and employment options for new lawyers is in flux,” and that the generation of lawyers entering practice now “has both an obligation and an opportunity that its predecessors never experienced.”

David Scott, the co-chair of Borden Ladner Gervais, has said that the lack of access to justice for ordinary people is the legal profession’s equivalent of global warming.

These are the big, systemic transitions that we are going to learn, think and share ideas about in the course.  I hope that the discussion will carry on outside class – and will engage the wider community.  That’s what the blog is for, and I’m really excited to read posts and comments by our new class of L21C partners, as well as everyone else who wants to join the conversation.

This time of year people often say that September, not January is the real new year.  It’s a time of transitions.  Here we go!

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The Road to (Legal) Innovation

First, I would like to start by congratulating the class on the successful completion of the Law Hacks presentations. I thoroughly enjoyed all the presentations which exposed me to some great ideas regarding legal innovation. I am excited to know that at least one of those ideas, Summons, is already on its way to becoming reality; I hope that more follow. As we look towards our future and the innovation of legal practice, there is a caveat to be considered.

In his article “The failure of legal innovation“, Jordan Furlong introduces the readers to the nature of the start-up market. Furlong points out that we live in the age of start-ups, a phenomenon that brings about significant social and economic benefits, but one which is characterized by the risk of failure. For every successful start-up, there are far more failed ones. As Furlong points out, the reason for failure is not always a bad idea, sometimes its bad execution, or worse still, pure bad luck. The point that he is trying to drive home is that there are immense challenges in the way of start-ups, which we got a taste of by getting grilled by the ‘dragons’.

As we learned during the semester, the legal profession is going through a transitional period as we play catch-up with the technological advancements. As much as it scary, it is a good sign that we have chosen the route of innovation rather than extinction.  It is no doubt that the need of the hour is investment in bold and fresh new ideas. However, I would like to add one caveat to this process: know when to stop. As mentioned earlier, a start-up’s failure isn’t always due to a bad idea; there are numerous other variables that account for success. Therefore, it is important to know when to give up on an idea, lest we end up chasing down a rabbit hole.

As part of the first graduating class of L21C at TRU Law, we are well on our way to start contributing meaningfully to the transition. The challenges ahead of us, as lawyers, are greater in way because lawyers don’t like to be told that they have been doing something wrong, especially when they hold considerable power in terms of regulating the practice of law. However, incremental changes by way of resilience will make sure that we come out stronger at the end of every battle. As Furlong said “[o]ne LinkedIn or Uber is worth many pets.com”; let’s keep trying for our LinkedIns and Ubers.

Finally, I would like to thank Professor Sykes for putting this innovative course together and introducing us to the future of our legal careers.

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The Future Of The Legal Education: Specialization Or Degradation Of The J.D.

As the legal field continues to expand, general practitioners are expected to know more in their respective fields to better assist their clients. A lawyer is expected to enhance their knowledge by keeping up with the evolution of the legal sector. Harry Arthurs recognizes the dangers that future lawyers may face in The Future of Legal Education: Three Visions and a Prediction.

He suggests a possible option where “The bar may one day recognize not just one class of members, but many. Members of each class would have different educational credentials…that general practitioners will one day be licensed to appear as advocates in certain tribunals and the lower courts, and to do routine real estate transactions, simple incorporations and uncontested divorces—but not undertake appellate litigation, patent applications or tax planning”.

He further elaborates “They might offer a skills-based one-year degree for paralegals, a stripped-down tow-year ‘basic’ degree for general practitioners, an enhanced four year degree for specialist practitioners, and conversion courses for those who want to upgrade their credentials”.

On the one hand, I can see this as a form of specialization in a specific area for law students. Those that know what area of law they want to practice can choose to study that, right from the beginning while avoiding all the unnecessary courses that they will never use for their chosen area of practice.

However, on the other hand I see this as undermining the value of legal education and hence a J.D. By creating this separation in the legal education, many of the basic competencies will be omitted from one’s legal education. On a basic level many of the different fields of law interact with each other, and competencies in all these areas are crucial for a practitioner to come up with the best solution for their clients.

There is obviously a wealth of knowledge available in studying law. In my opinion, due to the enhanced level of education required to sufficiently practice in each specific area of law, I think in the future, a LLM in the chosen area of practice will be mandatory after a JD, in order to obtain an articling position in the desired field.

With each area of law expanding everyday, I think it would be ridiculous to cut down on the legal education. The only way to keep up with the evolving nature of the legal sector is to increase the education required, and thus satisfying the necessary requirements of becoming a competent practitioner. Of course, this is just my view.  What do you think are some ways our legal education will evolve to better accommodate us in being competent in our areas of practice for the future?

 

 

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Embracing Change, Innovation and Technology

Recent socioeconomic trends have significantly accelerated the pace of need for change for the legal industry and the law firm business model.  One of the big themes that our firm’s well credited visitors have pointed out is technology.

In the past, the legal sector enjoyed great comfort in the linear nature of progression. Students attended law school for 3 years, then articled, then became associates, then made partner and went down the path of success until retirement, but that seems to have changed now.  There was an understanding between the law firms and their clients that good work costs money, and there was no surprise that billing rates were expected to rise, but that’s no longer the case either. One common indicator that projects the future of this industry is the emergence of technology, and firms which adapt to the changes are ahead of the game and will be industry leaders.

We’re a profession that I would suggest in the last 100 years has not done anything differently than how it has always done, and we are the only industry that is proud of that fact. The legal industry by definition looks to the past for finding ways of the future and that in my opinion needs to change. The comfort that comes with predictability and precedent is perhaps the main factor in postponing the realization of need for change for the industry as a whole.

For us as a profession not to embrace change and innovation, we are setting ourselves up for failure.

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