Law in the age of the customer

Mark Cohen opens Law in the age of the customer with the statement: This is the age of the customer.

The asymmetrical advantage that sellers long held over buyers is gone. Consumers have access to market information and choice that has transformed the buy-sell dynamic. Social media provides them with a reference source and a voice. The balance of power has shifted from the supply to the demand side. The customer is king in the digital age.

Read More

Law’s shift from practice to skill

During a recent visit to the National University of Singapore Law School (NUS), I asked a first-year student what being a lawyer meant to him. His response was thoughtful and prescient: “I regard law as a skill. I plan to leverage my legal training and meld it with my passion for business, technology, and policy. For me, law is not about practice.” Out of the mouths of babes!

Read More

Strategies for uncertain times

With Strategies for uncertain timesHeather Suttie makes a positive contribution in the gloomy, global environment from which no legal services provider will be shielded.

 It’s said that wars are won by strategy and battles are won by tactics. If that’s the case, then uncertainty around upcoming international political events—Canada’s federal election, Brexit, the 2020 U.S. election and forecasts for a financially-soft 2020 worldwide—may be among the factors that spur discontented clients to force change upon traditional law firms or leave them high and dry.

Read More

Leading thoughts curated by Stephen J. McGarry

Leading thoughts curated by Stephen J. McGarry brings Stephen’s 2019 Leaders in Legal Business to the attention of Dialogue subscribers. The 250 page flipbook is written by 40 leading authors under six main themes, making this a handy, up-to-date and accessible compendium.

Read More

Stop trying to differentiate your firm

I published a shorter version of Stop trying to differentiate your firm in The Australian Financial Review on 3 May 2019 and later the full text as on my blog, Relationship Capital.

Editor: Joel provocative opening paragraph struck a nerve: “99% of Australia’s full-service law firms have a strategy based on seeking clear market differentiation. In my view, they’re largely wasting their time and money.” So it’s a pleasure to bring the full text to readers of Dialogue.

Read More

Anna Hinder makes her debut with House Sitting or House Stealing

Anna Hinder makes her debut on Dialogue with House Sitting or House Stealing, a critical look at work quality before women go on parental leave from BigLaw firms and what happens when they return to work. Anna writes, “This blog came from taking a close look at the real reasons women don’t stay in the partner pipeline. I’m aware of one firm that pays attention to this and they are seeing results.” Read on…

Read More