Shows
The Modern LawyerFrom Google to IroncladToday’s episode is with Mary O’Carroll, the Chief Community Officer at Ironclad, a contract lifecycle management company. Mary comes from a consulting, business, and finance background and through her career at Orrick, Google, Ironclad, has become one of the faces of “legal operations.” It doesn’t hurt that she was a founding board member of CLOC, the corporate legal operations consortium.
In this episode we talk about Mary’s start at Orrick, working with leaders like Ralph Baxter and Peter Krakauer, to Google, where she built the legal operations team from scratch. She talks about how she put in place pro...
2021-06-2252 min
The Modern LawyerBring the Human Back to LegalToday’s episode is with Varun Mehta, the CEO of Factor, a legal managed services company recently spun out of Axiom, the massive alternative legal services provider. Varun’s story is fascinating. He approaches the legal industry from the perspective of an engineer out to solve problems in a cross-disciplinary way, totally free from the traditional, and frequently ineffective, old ways of performing legal services for clients.
Varun starts by telling the story of a formative experience earlier in his career where he was able to assemble a team of subject matter experts and data scientists and beat a Global 100 firm...
2021-05-1859 minThe Modern LawyerLaw by SKUToday’s episode is with Joey Seeber, the CEO of Level Legal, a Dallas-based, next generation law company that bills itself as “problem solvers” for the legal industry. From e-discovery, to investigations, to regulatory matters, Level Legal takes on many tasks that can’t be done effectively or efficiently at law firms.
In this episode, Joey talks about building a company in the depths of the Great Recession, large early clients opting to use Level Legal over traditional law firms, and all of the cultural and efficiency-based decisions he and his partners made in the early days. I think you’ll find Le...
2021-03-2447 minThe Modern LawyerThe $200 Million Phone CallAnyone reading news about legal technology recently has seen the massive surge in big money deals across the industry. Over the last several months, the industry has seen blockbuster fundraises and M&A activity despite the pandemic. Just last month, contract management startup Ironclad raised over 100M. Around the same time, e-discovery company Disco, raised roughly the same amount. Weeks ago, Reveal Data raised 200M, spurring the acquisition of leading AI-backed data analytics platform Brainspace.
In today’s episode, we’re joined by Wendell Jisa, the CEO of Reveal Data. I ask him about his entrepreneurial journey, exactly how a 200M me...
2021-02-2444 minThe Modern LawyerThe Crypto EpisodeHappy New Year, Modern Lawyer Podcast listeners. Today’s episode addresses one of the fastest moving, most fascinating areas in the law today: blockchain and cryptocurrency. We’re joined by Joon Kim, a former Kirkland & Ellis attorney and AGC at Goldman Sachs, who is now the general counsel at blockchain startup o1 Labs, based out of San Francisco.
This episode explores three key things: one: a basic primer on what attorneys need to know now regarding cryptocurrency, two: what technological developments in smart contracts and transactions could replace rote, low level, and inefficient legal work, and three, a survey of majo...
2021-01-1240 minThe Modern LawyerReimagining Law Firms (Part 3)Today’s episode is the third and final episode in a three part series on how the law firm business model will change in response to economic, competitive, and cultural trends. Our guest today is Patrick DiDomenico, the Chief Innovation Officer at leading employment law firm Jackson Lewis. Patrick literally wrote the book on KM in legal, appropriately titled Knowledge Management for Lawyers.
In this episode, we talk about whether law firms are at a structural disadvantage to adapt to the legal needs of the future, the consequences of large clients keeping legal work within their in-house departments instead of hi...
2020-12-1750 minThe Modern LawyerReimagining Law Firms (Part 2)Today’s episode is the second in a three part series on the law firm business model and how COVID-19, the recession, and rising competition will cause law firms to rapidly change. Our guest today is Toby Brown, the Chief Practice Management Officer of AmLaw 50 law firm Perkins Coie. As a veteran of pricing, efficiency, and value in the law firm context, Toby provides a crucial perspective on where law firms are headed.
In our discussion, Toby talks about building close relationships with clients even while having very direct conversations about pricing, the role of the pricing function in biglaw, hi...
2020-12-081h 05The Modern LawyerReimagining Law Firms (Part 1)Today's episode is the first in a three part series on the law firm business model, and how COVID-19 the recession and rising competition will cause it to rapidly change. Our guest today is someone who is uniquely qualified to talk about this subject. Meredith Williams range is the Chief Knowledge and client value officer at the preeminent law firm Sherman and Sterling. Her portfolio of functions at the firm is impressive. Her role spans technology, knowledge management, pricing, in generally ensuring that each representation the firm takes on is a win win for the client, and for the firm...
2020-11-1750 minThe Modern LawyerLitigation Finance and The Grain MillerToday’s episode is with Eva Shang, CEO of Legalist, a tech-enabled litigation finance firm with 150 million dollars of assets under management. Legalist uses tech and sophisticated analytics to source and underwrite legal investments, mainly for small and medium size claims.
In this episode, Eva talks about her entrepreneurial background as a Harvard dropout, first-time founder, and now a leader in a fascinating niche in the legal industry. We discuss the nuts and bolts of how litigation funding works, its sticky ethical questions, and its implications.
Additionally, and in one of my favorite tangents so far on the podcasts, Eva I...
2020-09-2944 minThe Modern LawyerA Ringside ViewToday’s episode is with Ajay Agrawal, the co-founder of UnitedLex, one of the earliest global alternative legal services providers. He’s now the CEO of SirionLabs, a high tech contract management tool aimed at large companies.
This episode is long. It’s long because when I tried to find less valuable content to cut, I completely failed.
This is because Ajay is a fascinating, articulate business leader with unique perspectives on the legal industry. He got his start practicing law at Simpson Thacher in New York and later was a part of Jones Day’s expansion into India in the 90s...
2020-08-271h 15
The Modern LawyerIt's Only Disruption If You're Not Paying AttentionIn this episode, we chat with Bob Taylor, the Vice President and Senior Corporate Counsel of Legal Ideation & Transformation at Liberty Mutual Insurance. As a trailblazer in the field of corporate legal operations, Bob thinks in terms of systems, organizational efficiency, and core success metrics, which could be the saving grace of the legal industry entering as we enter a recession and uncertainty associated with the global pandemic.
2020-08-0652 minThe Modern LawyerA Better Lawn MowerToday we chat with Nikki Shaver, the managing director of Innovation and Knowledge at global law firm Paul Hastings and the founder of the global Legal Innovation Design group. Nikki shares about her journey from Europe to Australia to Canada and finally to the US, ultimately moving into the world of legal innovation and knowledge management and leading a KM team at Paul Hastings. Anand and Nikki discuss the principles of legal design, and why it's important to really understand the contours of a problem before jumping into a solution.
Especially in a high stress, high tension environment, I think...
2020-07-1649 minThe Modern LawyerThe T-Shirt PitchToday we talk with Michael Rhodes, the Global Chair of Cooley’s internet and data privacy practice group. At Cooley, he has famously represented companies from Google, Facebook, and Zoom recently to mp3.com and eBay decades ago. In those suits, he grappled with some of the most cutting edge data privacy issues, from biometrics, to automated email scanning, to privacy in augmented reality.
As an early startup attorney representing Silicon Valley’s most recognizable companies in their most high profile litigation, Michael has seen internet-based businesses develop from a niche group of startups to a powerhouse global industry.
2020-06-2351 minThe Modern LawyerADR's Breakout MomentToday we share our conversation with Judge Charles Clevert, a retired federal district court and bankruptcy court judge. Appointed at just 30 years of age, Judge Clevert was Wisconsin’s first African American federal judge. He now serves as a neutral with JAMS, an alternative dispute resolution provider.
2020-06-1142 minThe Modern LawyerDo We Still Need Offices?In this episode recorded over 60 days into the pandemic shelter-in-place, we speak with Zach Abramowitz, who approaches the legal industry from his perspective as a journalist, lawyer, investor, entrepreneur, and all-around connector in the field. Zach and Anand talk about the concerns, ideas, and predictions we are hearing from all sides of legal including whether law firms can still justify spending millions on expensive skyscraper real estate while increasing numbers of attorneys will work from home, how technology adoption looks in periods of uncertainty and fear, and overlaps between data science in military and defense tech and legaltech.
2020-05-2754 minThe Modern LawyerLaw School By LaptopToday we share a conversation with Erwin Chemerinsky, a preeminent constitutional law scholar, Supreme Court litigator, and Dean of Berkeley Law.
In this episode, we talk to Erwin about several topics, including Berkeley Law’s response to the pandemic, his vision for innovative legal education, advice to new students and graduating 3Ls, and how he picks which cases he takes on pro bono, many of which he argues at the Supreme Court or Circuit Court level. Finally, he talks about new constitutional law issues arising out of the pandemic, and what key decisions we should watch for in this Supreme Co...
2020-05-0743 minThe Modern LawyerLegaltech SupremacyToday’s conversation is with Robert (Bob) Owen, a tech-savvy veteran litigator and partner at top law firm Eversheds Sutherland. In this episode, Bob talks about the ambitious mandate his firm’s global co-chair of litigation provided him, namely to achieve “Legaltech supremacy” at Eversheds in two years. Bob shares details on how he’s meeting this goal, what pain points he’s solving at the firm, and how he views this as a golden age in legal tech.
2020-04-2353 minThe Modern LawyerThe A.I. FrontierToday we share a conversation with Amy Wegener, the Chief Practice Innovation Officer at AmLaw 25 law firm Paul Hastings and Joe Dunn, a former California State Senator, former CEO of the California State Bar, and a highly successful trial lawyer. Recently, Anand had the honor of presenting at a class they teach jointly at UC Irvine School of Law entitled 'Pushing the AI Frontier'.
In this episode, Amy and Joe talk about how the AI class came about and what practical knowledge they impart to their students, cutting edge projects that both of them are working on, and what they...
2020-04-0956 minThe Modern LawyerEvangelize From WithinToday's conversation is with Monet Fauntleroy, Director of Legal Service Delivery at Cooley. Monet has been on several sides of the legal technology ecosystems, starting out as a prosecutor, moving to a legal solutions provider, and finally to a large firm. At Cooley, Monet and her team of innovators evaluate new technologies and solve technology problems for the thousands of attorneys at the firm.
In this episode, Monet talks about the challenges of evangelizing from within a large law firm, what we have to learn from junior attorney fresh out of school, and how her firm has rapidly adapted to...
2020-03-2651 minThe Modern LawyerJustice By SmartphoneToday our conversation is with Shannon Salter, the chair of the Civil Resolution Tribunal. The CRT is a fascinating example of an online court that seeks to provide access to Canada's legal system in new, efficient ways. Through their online platform, injured parties can file and serve a complaint in a number of different causes of action, all from their smartphone. In this episode Shannon explains how she was selected to lead the CRT, the challenges she's faced along the way, and what the future of human-centered, virtual courts may be.
2020-02-2742 min
The Modern LawyerA Robot Walks Into a CourtroomToday we are honored to present our conversation Richard Susskind, one of the worlds leading intellectuals on technology in the law and the future of work.
Dr. Susskind is also the author of some of the best-known books involving the modernization of law and lawyers - including "the Future of Law", "Tomorrows Lawyers", and his most recent book "Online Courts and the Future of Justice".
In our conversation, Richard considers the future of our court system, the incentives for law firms to modernize, and his prediction that tomorrow's core legal jobs will revolve around technology and the creation of systems.
2020-02-1351 min
The Modern LawyerIt's Not All Perry MasonWe're honored to share our conversation with David Wilkins, a Law Professor at Harvard Law School and the Faculty Director of the Center on The Legal Profession. Anand recently had the opportunity to present to Professor Wilkins’ class at HLS, The Legal Profession, where he shared his thoughts on technology’s impact on the future of legal jobs.
Afterward, we had the chance to sit down with Professor Wilkins to talk about how Richard Nixon affected his legal career, three key forces affecting the legal industry, and how he educates students on the realities of legal practice. As it turns out...
2019-11-2159 min
The Modern LawyerIntuition And IndicatorsToday we share our conversation with Evan Parker, a Ph.D statistics expert and founder of Parker Analytics. Evan is ushering in a new era of data-driven decision-making for law firms by working with them to collect, assess, and evaluate their data, optimizing how they do business. He uses data to help them discover problematic trends in recruitment, diversity, and efficiency, then identifies their solutions. He recently discussed one of these trends on Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast, Revisionist History.
In this episode, Evan shares some surprising insights he has unearthed through looking at firm data, like how a good grade in...
2019-11-071h 07
The Modern LawyerThe 2 am IdeaToday we share our conversation with Haley Altman, founder and CEO of Doxly, which was recently acquired. Haley tells her story from the point of view of a former big law partner specializing in corporate transactions. In that senior role, she personally felt a pain point and looked to the market for a solution. Finding none, she founded Doxly, a company that manages corporate legal transactions.
Recently, Doxly was acquired and integrated into document life cycle powerhouse Litera Microsystems. In this episode, Haley takes us through the conception, growth, and sale of her company, including all of the failures and...
2019-10-2349 min
The Modern LawyerThe Modern Law StudentOn today’s episode of the Modern Lawyer Podcast, I had the opportunity to talk to University of Dayton School of Law Dean, Andrew Strauss. The Law School is examining new ways to use online tools to make legal education accessible to more students. In this episode, we hear Dean Strauss’s opinions on how on-demand online education can sometimes more effectively educate the modern law student than traditional classes, the challenges facing law schools today, and the struggle inherent in balancing the traditions of legal academia with the demands of the new economy.
2019-10-1044 min
The Modern LawyerThe Small Firm Guide To MarketingOn today’s episode of the Modern Lawyer Podcast, we speak with Karin Conroy, Legal Marketing Consultant and founder of Conroy creative counsel. In our conversation, we talk about marketing strategies for small and mid-size law firm attorneys. Karin provides us guidance on how to create a prospective-client-focused website, aligning website visuals with each firm’s ideal client, and the demands of the modern prospective client operating in a world of limitless attorney options.
2019-09-2532 min
The Modern LawyerThe Next Generation GCToday we share an interview with Bradley Gayton, the General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer of Ford Motor Company, ranked twelve in the Fortune 500. Bradley embodies the new generation of GCs. He’s up to speed on new technology including AI and machine learning. He’s interested in changing the business model in law. He’s curious and interested in the massive changes we are all witnessing in the legal industry. In this episode, Bradley shares his thoughts on outside counsel as “part of the family”, viewing a case from the perspective of a business from cradle to grave, and promoting...
2019-08-2941 min
The Modern LawyerThe A.I. Arms RaceIn this episode, we’re joined by Alex Lakatos, a litigation partner at Mayer Brown in Washington, DC. Alex is an example of a successful attorney at a thriving firm who is pushing himself to become an expert in the brand new area of artificial intelligence in financial services, lending, and credit. Alex organizes and speaks on AI in financial services symposia and events and discusses regulation of new AI technologies, AI-bias and the liability flowing from it, and how attorneys will interact with and shape AI in the near future.
2019-08-0832 min
The Modern LawyerThe Man-Shaped Woman AttorneyToday we are sharing our recent conversation with Christina Blacklaws, the President of The Law Society of England and Wales, (the equivalent of our American Bar Association). Throughout her career, Christina has been a champion for gender equality in law, alternative fee arrangements, and awareness of mental health issues in law. In our conversation, we discuss when and why women drop out of the profession, the impact of millennials in the work-place, and what she means by the concept of the “man-shaped woman” attorney.
2019-07-2547 min
The Modern LawyerThe Indiana Jones AspectToday we're joined by Charles Frey, the Director of Library at elite law firm, Munger Tolles & Olson. In this episode, we talk about the evolution of the librarian function in law firms, assisted my metaphors randing from Indiana Jones, to chicken farming, and the library of Alexandria. Charles talks about how librarians are increasingly expected to be experts, not just in retrieving information, but in evaluating new technologies and their use cases. We hope you enjoy our conversation.
2019-07-1146 min
The Modern LawyerFixing What You Didn't Know Was BrokenWhat is a Chief Innovation Officer? 10 years ago, this title didn’t exist, and at most firms big and small, it STILL doesn’t exist. I ask this question to Ali Shahidi, the Chief Innovation and Client Solutions Officer at AmLaw 100 law firm Sheppard Mullin.
Ali is an experienced and trusted innovation expert and technologist. He has decades of experience in legal. Combined that with his engineering background, he has world-class perspective on where the industry is going with respect to technology and automation.
In this episode, we talk about what he does in his role, what problems he is look...
2019-06-2748 min
The Modern LawyerThe Startup Within WilsonToday we talk to Kimball Parker, President of SixFifty, the technology subsidiary of top technology law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Early in his legal career, Kimball faced a personal example of how the legal system’s labyrinth-like complexity is harming millions of people who cannot afford attorneys.
This led to a fascinating career as a legal tech founder interested in ways to increase access to legal information and services. We talk about how severe the Access to Justice gap in the legal industry really is and how technology and automation can help provide a solution. Now, in his role at...
2019-06-1350 min
The Modern LawyerInside the Greenberg Innovation LabToday our guest is Marlene Gebauer, the Director of Strategic Legal Insights at the AmLaw 20 law firm, Greenberg Traurig. In this episode, Marlene shares how she ended up in her unique role at Greenberg and we discuss how she developed their 'innovation lab'. We get to hear about her passion for client collaboration, and what AmLaw executives are looking for in new technology tools.
2019-05-2945 min
The Modern LawyerAnswering the "So What?" QuestionToday we share our conversation with the Chief Marketing Officer of Winston Strawn, Howard Kravitz. He works us through the past, present, and future of the law firm marketing pitch, and how it is different from the consulting world, and how often marketers at a law firm have many more audiences than just a potential client. We hope you enjoy it!
2019-05-0238 min
The Modern LawyerLessons from the Big 4Today we are joined by Vishal Agnihotri, the Chief Knowledge Officer of Hinshaw & Culbertson, an AmLaw 200 law firm. Vishal has a background as an executive at KPMG and Ernst & Young. In this episode, we talk about the differences between two big areas of professional services, BigLaw, and the Big 4 accounting firms. Vishal observes a few different lessons that large law firms can learn from the Big 4, in addition to certain key roles the Big 4 will have a hard time replacing. She also shares her thoughts on the ‘unbundling’ of legal services, and how automation will affect the future of law firm...
2019-04-1844 min
The Modern Lawyer"Law Is Divinity With More Money At Stake"Augie Rakow is the co-founder and managing partner of Atrium LLP, a law firm that uses modern technology to provide startups fast, transparent, and predictable legal services. Augie co-founded Atrium in 2017 with Justin Kan, who built the popular video game streaming platform Twitch. Before founding Atrium, Augie was a corporate partner at Orrick focusing on startups. In this episode, we discuss how Atrium plans to change the legal industry, Augie’s view on how legal services ideally should be delivered, and the similarities between his studies at Harvard Divinity School and law practice.
2019-04-0449 min
The Modern LawyerThe Millennial EpisodeToday on the Modern lawyer we speak with JP Box, a lawyer, entrepreneur, author, and millennial. After a career in AmLaw 100 firms, JP left law practice dissatisfied with his experience. After changing his career, he just couldn’t kick the feeling that there was some shared experience causing many lawyers of his generation to leave the law. He decided to explore this and through years of research and discussion, he became an expert in showing law firms how to get the most productivity out of their millennial attorneys. He’s concluded that there are clear, simple steps law firms can do t...
2019-02-2044 min
The Modern LawyerThe WizardOur guest today is Oz Benamram. He is the Chief Knowledge Officer at White and Case, where he has led their KM program for over 10 years. Oz is a leader in the field and his ideas on technology, law firm economics, and information management are often years ahead of his peers.
2019-02-0732 min
The Modern LawyerCulture, Mergers, and MetricsToday you’ll hear an interview with Beatrice Seravello, who was a former Chief Strategy Officer at Blank Rome and Kaye Scholer, and now a senior executive at Arnold Porter. As a chief strategy officer, Bea had oversight for all revenue-generating activities, leading Strategy, Business Development, Marketing and Practice Management for the firm, overseeing targeted new business and revenue growth, client development and retention strategies, pricing, and public relations. In that role she she reported directly to the Managing Partner. At Arnold & Porter she is working on the ongoing project of ensuring that the Arnold & Porter and Kaye Scholer Merger go...
2018-12-1140 min
The Modern LawyerGravity Stack: Innovation in the AmLaw 50Today’s guest is Bryon Bratcher, the Managing Director of Gravity Stack, a wholly owned subsidiary of AmLaw 50 law firm Reed Smith. Gravity Stack is a revenue-generating company within the firm that builds products and offers up services for law firms and other businesses. We speak with Bryon about his journey from the head of the Reed Smith client technology solutions group, which was renamed and spun out as Gravity Stack. Bryon talks to us about the future of the industry, including the threats from the Big Four, consolidation among solutions providers, and the future of revenue generating solutions providers ow...
2018-11-2638 min
The Modern LawyerLegal Tech From ScratchMatthew Stubenberg is an attorney entrepreneur who is now the associate director of Legal Technology at Harvard Law School. Matthew has created notable and useful technology based on pain points he experienced as a practitioner in Baltimore, Maryland. So far he has created the NotGuilty App and MD Expungement, two tools that have earned thousands of users. We speak with Matt about what it was like creating apps specifically for lawyers, how he spots legal processes that can be easily automated, and what role he thinks technology and coders in particular are going to play in the practice of law.
2018-11-1235 min
Garlic Marketing ShowGMS 119 - How One SaaS Company Disrupted the Legal Industry and Helped Attorneys Work Better and Faster with VP of Business Development Anand UpadhyeAnand Upadhye, VP of Business Development at CaseText is our special guest this week on the Garlic Marketing Show. Anand’s worked as a paralegal, attorney, prosecutor, and litigator where he discovered the challenges about the legal research process. He wanted to solve the legal headaches without just taking Advil. Casetext has become the most efficient SaaS tool in the legal industry by helping attorney's work faster, more efficiently, and give better results. Casetext is leading the SaaS industry with its innovative legal tool to research less and discover more. Casetext has disrupted the legal industry because few SaaS to...
2018-10-2339 min
The Modern LawyerThe Innovation NarrativeToday’s guest is Jordan Grotzinger, a shareholder and Co-Chair of the Los Angeles Litigation Practice at Greenberg Traurig. Jordan is a business litigator and trial attorney who has experience in entertainment law and intellectual property. Lately, he has spent an increasing amount of time driving innovation and modernization at the firm. We were honored to host Jordan in our office at Casetext in San Francisco to talk about how attorneys can incorporate technology into their practice at large firms, the future of the billable hour, what trends he is seeing in litigation, and what an “innovation narrative” means at a larg...
2018-10-2237 min
The Modern LawyerRevolução! A discussion of Brazil's Legal Tech BoomSo often in the tech world and the legal industry we view the United States as a legal market that is separate and distinct, but it is really important for us to take into account what is happening in other countries as well. We see a lot of the same trends in countries like Brazil as we do in the United States, and we can seethe different ways in how they approach legal technology. Our guests are Bruno Barata, Evy Marques, and Bruno Feigelson, all preeminent figures in the Brazilian Legal Tech community.
2018-09-2849 min
The Modern LawyerThe Chatbot That Saved 15 Million DollarsIn this episode Anand is joined by Joshua Browder, a software engineer and the Founder of DoNotPay, a robot lawyer startup that helps customers fight parking tickets and obtain refunds from airlines. DoNotPay has saved their customers an estimated $15M in parking fines alone. Time Magazine proclaimed DoNotPay as the “Hero the World Needs,” and the BBC nicknamed it the “Robin Hood of the internet.” They talk about chatbots tailored to specific legal problems, the challenges in creating robot lawyers, and how technology can address exploitative industries in pro-consumer ways.
2018-09-1431 min
Blacklines & BillablesVoices of ILTACON 2018Episode 12 of the Blacklines & Billables podcast: the next installment of our “Voices” series--this time from National Harbor, Maryland at ILTACON 2018. We asked a range of lawyers and technologists attending the conference for on-the-spot short answers to a range of questions about ILTACON and the legal technology landscape more broadly. Their reactions and impressions created this pod, which captures a snapshot of the ILTACON experience and provides a window into the important conversations currently taking place in the legal tech community.The Questions:What makes ILTACON interesting or unique as a le...
2018-08-3138 min
The Modern LawyerStop, Collaborate, And ListenScott Bailey is the Global Director of Research Services at Squire Patton Boggs. He’s seen decades of law firm transition, including acquisitions, rapid growth and restructuring. He’s a specialist in not just identifying technology that can help his firm’s attorneys, but also bringing it into his firm across practice groups and stakeholders. He comes to us today with a radical, industry shaking idea: have people sit down and talk. Sometimes, it's the little things that can change an industry.
2018-08-3136 min
The Modern LawyerInnovating Pro BonoSome estimates show that over 65% of legal needs in the United States are not met because most people simply cannot afford attorneys. Pro bono work can help bridge that gap, but as attorneys who have worked on pro bono cases know, it's often difficult to find and manage pro bono cases. That's what inspired Felicity Conrad to start Paladin, a platform that helps companies and law firms manage their pro bono work. Join us for Anand's conversation with Felicity about problems in the way the legal industry does pro bono work, how technology can be leveraged to fix it, and...
2018-08-0237 min
The Modern LawyerIs Small Law The Future?Carolyn Elefant, solo attorney and author of the popular blog MyShingle, shares her predictions for how solo practice will change in the next 20 years, including new technologies and business models that are already gaining popularity among solo practitioners.
2018-07-0639 min
The Modern LawyerThe Inclusion RiderFrances McDormand ended her Oscars acceptance speech with two words: “inclusion rider.” Attorney Kalpana Kotagal, who actually wrote the inclusion rider, explains what it is, how it came about, and why it will drive diversity and inclusion in Hollywood and beyond.
2018-06-2125 min
The Modern LawyerStart-To-Finish LitigationAs the Associate GC leading the litigation group at Macy’s, Betty Tierney and her team actually handle much of the company’s litigation themselves -- and she’s using that experience to guide her expectations when she works with outside counsel. Learn more about Macy’s unique approach to litigation, find out why Betty believes we’re going to see an increase in alternative fee arrangements over the next 10 years, and more.
2018-06-0728 min
The Modern LawyerHoly Grail of Legal TechEvan Shenkman, Ogletree Deakins’ Director of Knowledge Management Counsel and Research, describes how his experiences practicing law and building Ogletree’s KM department led him to the “holy grail” of legal technology: a system that can automatically kick off a chain of events involving both external vendors and internal systems whenever a motion is filed.
2018-05-2448 min
The Modern LawyerWhat Your Clients Are ThinkingJason Barnwell, Assistant General Counsel at Microsoft, explains why he tries to structure his relationships with outside counsel as partnerships rather than a supplier or vendor relationship, and the signals he looks for that a firm will be a good partner to him. You’ll also find out why Jason believes “The billable hour is a shackle on innovation and efficiency,” and what Microsoft is moving toward to replace it.
2018-05-1032 min
The Modern LawyerOld Problems, New SolutionsWhen Scott Rechtschaffen thinks “there has to be a better way,” he creates that better way. As a shareholder and later CKO at Littler, Scott has implemented outside-the-box solutions to a number of long-standing problems in legal practice. Find out how he eliminated the annoyance of firmwide RFI emails, made training on workplace regulations actually fun, and more.
2018-04-2623 min
The Modern LawyerWhat You Should Know About BlockchainWhat You Should Know About Blockchain by Anand Upadhye
2018-04-1221 min
The Modern LawyerThe “White Whale” of Legal Tech Adoption with Jeff RovnerWhen Jeff Rovner started working in KM, it was still “this thing that had no name.” Now, KM is at the forefront of some of the most fundamental issues in legal innovation, including Jeff’s own “white whale” of legal tech adoption. Anand talks with Jeff about the evolution of KM, what law firms can learn from the consulting world, and how adoption of legal tech will impact attorneys’ workflows, law firm business models, and more.
2018-03-2923 min
The Modern LawyerJean O'GradyAnand chats with Jean O’Grady of DLA Piper and Dewey B. Strategic, who shares her journey from academic reference librarian to Director of Research Services at one of the world’s largest firms. Find out what it was like to transition from a world without the internet (or even Post-Its) to one increasingly focused on innovation, and learn how law librarians, millenials, and AI will shape the future of law.
2018-03-1532 min
The Modern LawyerIntroductionWelcome to The Modern Lawyer, a podcast about the changes in the legal industry. Join our host Anand Upadhye as he speaks with giants in the American Legal Industry about the evolution of the practice of law.
2018-03-1401 min