The Five Forces That Resist Change in the Legal Industry

Looking back over the past two years of guests, we see a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives: different generations, different paths, and different areas of focus—legal ops, legal tech, law education, working in the A2J space, and attorney well-being, among others. We've covered a lot of ground. Obviously, we cannot recap everything we have discussed, but as we think about change in the profession, certain themes seem to emerge from the conversations. For these purposes though, let's focus on the corporate legal landscape. The thesis of today’s episode is simple: That landscape has become more complex over the past few years—complexity only fueled by the pandemic. We tend to extol the virtues of simplicity, and rightly so, but complexity has its own virtue, opening both organizational and individual opportunities. Managing complexity is its own challenge, but in speaking with our pathfinders, we find certain markers of success.