News Tag: Legal Innovation

June 16, 2020

Making Law Better By Looking Outside of Law—The Wrap

When I kicked off my 2020 Resolution for the Legal Profession series back in December, to say the world looked different from today would be the understatement of the century. But for everything else that can be said about how much things have changed in just a matter of months, the central point of the resolution—that there is much our legal profession can learn by looking at other professions and industries—has only become more apparent.

The way we do business in law already was not working well for the average person or for the lawyers trying to serve the consumer legal market, and other professions and industries were far ahead of us in modernizing their business practices. As we all adapt to the new normal where more people than ever need legal help and where remote, multichannel access will forevermore be a fundamental part of our lives, it is even more urgent for our legal profession to look beyond ourselves for solutions.

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June 16, 2020

CBA/CBF Task Force Preparing to Release Draft Report for Public Comment

The CBA/CBF Task Force on the Sustainable Practice of Law & Innovation is putting the final touches on a comprehensive report and recommendations for modernizing our regulatory framework for the business of law.  The product of nine months of hard work by dozens of dedicated volunteers working on five committees, the next step is to share […]

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April 20, 2020

Making Law Better By Looking Outside of Law—Video Changed the Radio Star

Those of us of a certain age who grew up with our home entertainment options largely limited to radio and a handful of network and local TV stations will remember when MTV arrived on the scene in 1981 and wowed us with this new-aged video from the Buggles.

While that song still belongs on any good list of one hit wonders, the Buggles were just as wrong that music video would be the end of radio as the many pundits who said that television would do the same several decades earlier. But being able to watch videos on MTV fundamentally changed the music landscape, and it was one of the key markers on the path to the multi-channel entertainment world we now all take for granted and have come to rely on more than ever during the pandemic lockdown.

And that makes music, movies, and the media a fitting next stop in my 2020 Resolution for the Legal Profession series on how we can learn from our counterparts in other professions and industries to make law better. Because with just a few notable exceptions, our legal profession and larger justice system are still operating with a one-channel business model in today’s multi-channel world, and it’s no wonder that is not working very well for the average person with a legal problem.

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March 19, 2020

Make Law Better by Looking Outside of Law—A Tax and Accounting Tutorial

When I started down the road on my 2020 Resolution for the Legal Profession to look at how we can learn from our counterparts in other professions and industries to make law better, it never occurred to me that we’d be facing a situation like the one brought on in recent weeks by the coronavirus. But as our legal community and justice system continue to respond in earnest to the challenges and disruption caused by this crisis, the importance of this undertaking has become even clearer. And the next stop on this journey—the tax and accounting profession and related businesses—offers some particularly useful lessons for our present and future times in law on the key issues of remote services and remote access.

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March 18, 2020

CBA/CBF Task Force Making Good Progress

Late last month, the full CBA/CBF Task Force on the Sustainable Practice of Law & Innovation reconvened for the first time since the Task Force launched in October 2019. The group came together this time to learn from the efforts of our Canadian colleagues, to hear updates from all five committees, and to discuss and […]

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February 13, 2020

Make Law Better by Looking Outside of Law—A Medical and Dental Examination

A trip to the doctor or dentist is not something most of us look forward to. But there is much we in law can learn from the evolution of those professions, and that is the next stop in my 2020 Resolution for the Legal Profession journey.

While there is still room for further progress, three ways these professions have improved access include: a continuum of care options with many different entry points, a range of professionals who assist and are known by who they are rather than being called “non-doctors” or “non-dentists,” and a variety of business models for their practices to best meet the needs of both the professionals and their patients.

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February 11, 2020

JEPY Awards Celebrate Innovation

Stars of the CBF Justice Entrepreneurs Project, friends, supporters and community partners gathered February 10th at Lagunitas Taproom & Brewery to celebrate innovative practices, expanded access to legal services, and lawyering with panache. The 4th Annual JEPY Awards, created by former JEP Director Trevor Clarke, honored the great work JEP attorneys are doing, recognizing attorneys […]

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December 16, 2019

2020 Resolution—Make Law Better by Looking Outside Law

By Bob Glaves | CBF Executive Director

One of the common traits of our legal profession is to view ourselves as unique in the world. And that is certainly true to an extent, as the practice of law involves specialized expertise and services that good lawyers are distinctively able to provide.

But we are […]

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November 12, 2019

New CBA/CBF Task Force Aims to Lead Our Profession into the Future

The CBA and CBF earlier this month launched a new Task Force on the Sustainable Practice of Law & Innovation with the interconnected goals of making legal services more affordable and accessible for the public and making the practice of law more innovative and sustainable for lawyers. Building on the CBA and CBF’s prior leadership on these issues and similar efforts in other jurisdictions, the Task Force will reimagine the way we regulate the business of law in Illinois and ultimately make recommendations to the Illinois Supreme Court to modernize the Rules of Professional Conduct to advance these goals. Learn more…

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October 8, 2019

CBA and CBF Aiming for Significant Legal Regulatory Reform with Creation of New Joint Task Force

The Chicago Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Foundation have announced the creation of a first-of-its-kind Illinois task force that will work to identify regulatory reform recommendations to provide enhanced access and more affordable legal services to the public, while also working to make the practice of law more innovative and sustainable for lawyers.

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