Why Do Law Firms Resist Innovation?
By Ron Friedmann It’s not just your imagination, innovating in the legal market is hard. What passes for a radical change in a law practice—a new training program, some alternative billing, an extranet—is old hat in other markets. Over two decades in the legal market, I’ve seen lawyers resist most innovation. For example, it wasn’t all that long ago that buying laptops for the firm’s lawyers or sending e-mail newsletters to clients conjured up a parade of horrors in law firms. To this day, something as simple as preparing a spreadsheet to outline the budget and main activities for a client matter still elicits blank stares from most partners. As another telling example, a few years ago I suggested a firm support lawyers working at home a couple of days per week. “No, the culture requires we all work in the same place,” came the reply. Never mind that lawyers rarely visit adjacent floors (much less go to the lobby and switch elevator banks). Never mind that if your team is in another ci
