While we give our guests a summer break, Steve shares some of his favorite moments from the podcast so far, and some thoughts from his own journey that were triggered by the conversations with our guests. Today's episode is on the topic of the pioneering journey itself. By revisiting our past interviews, we will explore the commonalities among the paths of our guests and see what lessons can be extracted for our own journeys. In many ways, each one of our guests has followed the beat of their ow...
Aug 25, 2021•26 min
While we give our guests a summer break, Pioneers and Pathfinders will release three recap episodes in August with highlights from our first 22 episodes. In each recap, Steve will share some of his favorite moments from the podcast so far, and some thoughts from his own journey that were triggered by the conversations with our guests. In today’s second recap, Steve takes a deep dive into the role of storytelling in the innovation journey. If you've ever read a book to a child or become immersed ...
Aug 18, 2021•18 min
While we give our guests a summer break, Pioneers and Pathfinders will release three recap episodes in August with highlights from our first 22 episodes. In each recap, Steve wills hare some of his favorite moments from the podcast so far, and some thoughts from his own journey that were triggered by the conversations with our guests. For our first recap, we explore the topic of innovation itself—a concept that came up frequently, given our focus on pioneers and pathfinders. In light of how how ...
Aug 11, 2021•25 min
When we use the term “pioneer” in the name of this podcast, we're talking about those who blazed a trail for others to follow and hopefully improve upon. No one fits that description better than today's guest, Jeff Carr. While GC of FMC Technologies, Jeff launched the ACES program—what was then a novel way of pricing legal services. Now, he’s in what he calls “R3" status: recently re-retired. It's really not surprising that someone with a career as varied as Jeff’s, and with as many diverse inte...
Aug 04, 2021•39 min
Our guest today is Joe Borstein. Joe has been on the leading edge of change in the industry for many years, and today, he is the founder of LexFusion, a new collaborative venture among some of the biggest names in legal tech and outsourcing. LexFusion is born of Joe’s experience as both a lawyer and entrepreneur, with a goal of accelerating the adoption of technology within corporate legal departments and law firms. They will accomplish this by transforming a lengthy—and sometimes brutal—sales c...
Jul 28, 2021•40 min
Today's guest followed her passion for persuasive writing from the courtroom to legal technology. Jackie Schafer is a former Paul Weiss litigator, in-house counsel, assistant attorney general, and serial entrepreneur. Today, she is the founder of Clearbrief, an AI-powered legal writing tool, which recently received $1.2 million in outside funding from big venture capital names Sequoia Capital and Madrona Venture Group. Her company has also received backing from Avvo founder Mark Britton and a nu...
Jul 21, 2021•32 min
Long before unicorns were trending in popular culture, Lucy Bassli was thinking about “unicorn lawyers.” In her role as assistant general counsel at Microsoft overseeing contract management systems and procurement, she had a unique view into how process and technology can improve service delivery. Today, she has spun these unicorn lawyer traits into a trailblazing career as founder, advisor, speaker, and author. Lucy is the founder of InnoLaw Group, a legal service provider and consultant to law...
Jul 14, 2021•37 min
FisherBroyles is an overnight success that’s been 20 years in the making. Founders and managing partners James Fisher and Kevin Broyles have a lot to celebrate: the firm just entered the Am Law 200 with a 14% increase in revenue over 2019, and the addition of 51 partners in 2020. This is notable because FisherBroyles has no offices, no associates, and no secretaries—what James calls, “the headwinds of profitability.” As such, it's the first distributed firm to crack big law ranks, and a truly tr...
Jul 07, 2021•34 min
Today’s guests are Bryan Parker and Jonathan Greenblatt, founders of Legal Innovators, an alternative legal service provider designed to solve two of the toughest problems facing the profession: the training of junior legal talent, and diversity and inclusion. Their goal is to change the value proposition of junior legal talent for law firms and in-house teams, without sacrificing quality. They do this through a combination of training, mentoring, pricing, and flexible placements. Bryan and Jona...
Jun 30, 2021•40 min
Today’s guest is Lucy Ricca, Fellow at the Stanford Center on the Legal Profession and the Executive Director of the Utah Office of Legal Services Innovation. In that role, she has helped Utah’s Supreme Court build its legal regulatory sandbox, through which entities may use new models for legal businesses and offer new kinds of legal services to Utah’s public. It’s a fascinating model where economic regulations governing lawyers can be relaxed, data gathered, and policy improved. Listen in to t...
Jun 23, 2021•37 min
Dan Rodriguez is the Harold Washington Professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, having previously served as dean January 2012 through August 2018. In that role, he was instrumental in bringing an interdisciplinary focus to the law school curriculum. Dan has also advocated for the law-business-technology interface as chair of the ABA Center for Innovation. In today’s episode, learn how Dan appeals to lawyers’ self-interest and selflessness to break down barriers, and how scien...
Jun 16, 2021•37 min
Bruce MacEwen and Janet Stanton are president and partner, respectively, of Adam Smith, Esq., a consultancy serving law firms and a long-running blog on the economics of law firms. They combine their wealth of experience in economics, business, and law to help firms better prepare for tomorrow. After not knowing what to expect going into the pandemic, Bruce and Janet have found their business booming over the last year, as firms grappled with the fallout and people adapted to a new way of workin...
Jun 09, 2021•39 min
Today, our guest is Michele DeStefano, a professor; author; speaker; and independent consultant on innovation, technology, culture, and cross-practice, cross-border initiatives. Before entering the legal ecosphere, she had a career in advertising and marketing for some ubiquitous brand names. Michele brings that experience to her work with lawyers and legal teams, helping them to identify problems, design solutions, and use storytelling for buy-in and adoption. Listen in to our conversation to l...
Jun 02, 2021•34 min
Today’s guest is Mark Cohen, a pioneer in every sense of the word. He is the CEO of Legal Mosaic, a legal business consultancy that provides strategic advice to corporate legal departments, law firms, legal service providers, legal networks, entrepreneurs, and law schools. He is a co-Founder and Executive Chairman of The Digital Legal Exchange, a unique, global, not-for-profit organization created to teach, apply, and scale digital principles to the legal function. Mark is passionate about moder...
May 26, 2021•41 min
Dr. Larry Richard is the founder of LawyerBrain, a management consulting firm that helps law firms address issues related to leadership, motivation, talent management, and managing change. Dr. Richard was among the first to apply the scientific principles of human behavior to the personality traits of lawyers. His work validates what those in the legal industry already know intuitively. Lawyers are highly autonomous, skeptical, and analytical—traits that frequently pose a barrier to innovation e...
May 19, 2021•43 min
Christian Lang loved being a lawyer. But after several years of practice, he could not resist the lure of legal tech as a source of community and continuous improvement for the profession. This led to his creation of the NY Legal Tech Meetup which now has more than 1500 members. Today, Christian is Head of Strategy at Reynan Court, a marketplace for legal technology. In that role, he brings his talent for community building to the application vendors, firms, and in-house departments that use the...
May 12, 2021•35 min
Alex Su is a lawyer turned legal technologist whose non-traditional career path has been shaped by his talent for building community. In fact, since we recorded this interview, Alex has moved into a new role with Ironclad as their Head of Community Development. We couldn’t think of a better title for someone whose social media posts get people talking to each other. Through his transparency, humor, and vulnerability, Alex has been able to shed light on many of the “wicked problems” facing the le...
May 12, 2021•35 min
Today’s guest is Jae Um. Jae runs a market insights company called Six Parsecs, and serves as an advisor to a number of legal tech companies as a self-described “supertemp.” Prior to unbundling her career, Jae spent many years in Big Law, including a six year stint at Seyfarth. Since launching her company, Jae has become well-known in the industry for her sharp insights, and unique approach to visual storytelling. Listen in to today’s podcast to learn how and why she picked the companies she is ...
May 05, 2021•37 min
Like many of those changing the industry, Cat Moon has a long and multilayered CV. She’s a lawyer. She’s a lecturer at Vanderbilt. She’s a writer and speaker. She’s an organizer. But getting to know Cat in conversation reveals a unique point-of-view that no traditional CV can capture. In a wide ranging discussion that moves from how Cat navigated teaching during the pandemic, to the work she’s doing with Design Your Delta, this self-described “curious lawyer” shares her thoughts on how empathy w...
Apr 28, 2021•49 min
After three decades of working at the intersection of law and business, today’s guest almost needs no introduction. Susan Hackett is currently the CEO of Legal Executive Leadership, LLC, and has had a wide ranging career as senior vice president and general counsel of the ACC for more than 20 years. While at the ACC, she presided over the creation of the Value Challenge to recognize the in-house teams and outside counsel who are driving value in legal spending, in addition to strategic initiativ...
Apr 21, 2021•53 min
Today’s Guest is Jason Barnwell, Associate General Counsel, Modern Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs at Microsoft. In that role, he leads innovation efforts for the law department, as well as Microsoft’s law firm engagement strategy. Jason has an active and vocal thought leadership role on the evolution of the profession, bringing his experience as an engineer to his insights. In his conversation with Steve, Jason reveals the three things he brings to his work from his engineering training,...
Apr 14, 2021•44 min
Today’s guest is Dan Linna, Senior Lecturer and Director of Law and Technology Initiatives at Northwestern, a joint appointment in Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and McCormick School of Engineering. He also holds a number of roles at international law schools, and organizations that promote the integration of technology into the profession. Dan began his career as an information technology manager, developer, and consultant. His work included computerizing and automating business processes,...
Apr 07, 2021•46 min
For the last few years, legal technology has seen an incredible boom, as more and more companies and entrepreneurs enter the space. Today’s guest, Nicole Bradick, comes from this world. Nicole is the CEO and founder of Theory and Principle, a technology product design and development firm for the legal industry. Like many of our guests, Nicole has had a fascinating journey from former litigator to three-time legal technology entrepreneur. Listen in as Steve and Nicole discuss why and how Nicole ...
Mar 31, 2021•34 min
Welcome to the premiere episode of Pioneers and Pathfinders. Today’s guest is Dr. Heidi Gardner, is a Distinguished Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession and Faculty Chair of the school’s Accelerated Leadership Program and Sector Leadership Masterclass. She is also the best-selling author of Smart Collaboration and noted thought leader on the topics of collaboration, lateral hiring, in-house legal teams, leadership, and performance. Dr. Gardner couldn’t be more representa...
Mar 24, 2021•44 min
Join our host Steve Poor for a brief behind-the-scenes of our newest podcast Pioneers and Pathfinders. Subscribe today for new episodes weekly. Highlighted guests include: Dan Linna, Northwestern Law Susan Hackett, Legal Executive Leadership, LLC Jae Um, Six Parsecs Cat Moon, Vanderbilt Law Nicole Bradick, Theory and Principle
Mar 12, 2021•2 min
