Tell us about yourself?
I have spent my five-decade professional career reconciling an artistic spirit in an analytical profession. I’m a “whatever makes sense” person in a rigidly hierarchical field; an entrepreneur in a staid profession. My career as a bet-the-company trial lawyer enabled me to straddle the artistic and analytical. My decision to exit BigLaw as a partner to start my own national firm liberated me from hierarchical oppression and permitted me to create a more customer-centric organization. The opportunity to serve as outside GC to three large insurance industry clients and as a court-appointed Receiver of an international business enabled me to experience legal delivery from the customer perspective. Following this, I traded practicing law to reimagining the business of delivering legal services. That’s an expurgated version of how and why my career is where it is presently. I anticipate at least one more chapter has yet to be written.
What challenges are organisations facing in how they deliver legal services?
The biggest challenge is adaptation. The world—and business—is changing profoundly and rapidly. It’s not change around the edges; its paradigm change. In law, it’s the shift from provider to customer-centricity. This requires altering one’s mindset and indoctrination, and that’s not easy.