Legal reset: law firm culture must change (obvs)

An insightful report here by Obelisk, led by the amazing Dana Denis-Smith and chaired by Neil Rose of Legal Futures, concluding the pandemic has done nothing to change law firm culture and offering four pillars to address this.

Glad to be a contributor to this work, my comments focus on purpose and financial investment - putting actual capital towards change, not just words.

Talent drain

‘This trend is also seeing more younger lawyers swapping private practice for lawtech start - ups or moving into the technology and innovation development arms of their existing law firms.' Jenifer Swallow says this is often because “they do not see the purpose in it – all they see is a sweatshop where they do not feel valued. We still have that within our ecosystem.” ‘

Purpose-led and intentional

“The reason people go and work in tech companies is often mission. Increasingly, when I talk to people, they want purpose. They want to work somewhere that lights them up every day.”

Investing in innovation

“The standard in business is 5% that you reinvest in R&D, and we are not even at 1% in the legal sector. That is pretty woeful, but it is probably indicative of the maturity we are at.”