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Hello and welcome to this special edition

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of Legal Management Talk.

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2023 was an exciting year for LMT

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and we wanted to celebrate

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by compiling some of our favorite moments

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from this year's episodes.

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Stay tuned for snippets

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from our conversations that cover legal

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ops, mental wellness, AI and much more.

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from these episodes and others,

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Danner and myself,

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thanks for watching and listening.

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0:56

Yeah, so think of legal operations as Oh, I'm going to use a car

0:57

reference here.

1:02

Here we go. As an engine room

1:02

of a law firm.

1:04

So it's the it's the engine room. It's the one that keeps it going.

1:09

It makes sure that it's turning forward.

1:11

It's where we really take that strategic,

1:11

data driven

1:14

approach to managing our resources

1:14

because we're trying to, you know,

1:18

optimize outcomes, reduce

1:18

spend, boost efficiency.

1:22

So it's really about treating the legal

1:22

side of the firm as its own business.

1:27

And legal administrators, they're the

1:31

they're the mechanics

1:31

and the architects of this engine room.

1:34

Right. They're the ones that are navigating

1:34

the complex legal landscape

1:38

and working with their various partners

1:38

or company stakeholders

1:43

to protect the firm's interests

1:43

and help it succeed.

1:45

And that's where I think that legal ops

1:45

and legal,

1:49

firm administrators can find

1:52

a lot of the similar attributes

1:52

and things that make legal operations

1:57

great because they are doing

1:57

it just in a different lens.

2:01

So AI

2:06

is going to know more, have access

2:06

to more data, more examples.

2:11

And it’s continuously learning,

2:11

which a lot of attorneys

2:16

just stop learning because they think

2:16

they just know enough to do the job.

2:19

So they stop learning. AI never stops.

2:22

So it’s just going to be the best version

2:22

of a legal assistant,

2:26

a legal attorney assistant to a client at

2:32

zero or very little cost.

2:35

So that's the biggest impact

2:35

on transaction.

2:38

And if whoever is not ready for it

2:38

and is not getting in front of it is going

2:42

to get left behind, in my opinion,

2:42

in a matter of less than three years.

2:46

60 to 70% of transactional law

2:50

is basically going to be left out there

2:52

because AI is going to

2:52

take over and do it for them.

3:00

Now, when we were talking earlier,

3:00

you had a great quote

3:03

from the Berenstain Bears,

3:03

and I'd like you to share that.

3:05

Love this quote. And it's one

3:07

that I use to talk myself into

3:11

just about anything that I want to do that

3:11

I'm fighting with myself for

3:16

and it comes from the Great Road

3:16

Race in the event

3:19

that anybody is interested

3:19

in picking up the book.

3:22

It goes over under around or through.

3:27

There isn't any obstacle

3:27

I can't get through.

3:35

I think sometimes we're so paralyzed

3:35

thinking

3:38

we're going to say the wrong thing

3:38

and it keeps us from saying anything.

3:41

And I think the moral is just

3:41

if you're sensing something's

3:44

wrong and check in.

3:47

It's a kind thing to do.

3:50

Yeah, I agree. I think if there were any thoughts that

3:54

I would want to leave the audience with

3:55

or that we could take forward, it would be

4:01

to shift the conversation and our dialog

4:03

about mental health from stigma to support

4:06

to this idea that

4:09

we're all likely going

4:09

to experience these types of episodes,

4:14

whether it's again, a week,

4:14

a month, a year.

4:17

There are seasons of our lives

4:17

that are hard and challenging,

4:20

and I think many of us simply don't

4:20

acknowledge them for what they really are.

4:25

And that is just a mental health

4:25

challenge.

4:27

And that we are we know we're struggling

4:27

and we are who we generally are.

4:33

So moving away from making that a stigma

4:33

to being

4:37

there's something wrong with you

4:37

or you're somehow not capable or

4:43

you're not perfect to how can we help you?

4:46

Because we believe in you. We know you. We want you to be

4:48

your whole person is hugely important.

4:55

What's happening is

4:55

the synergy we're seeing within the legal

4:59

community is really starting

4:59

to move towards an area

5:02

in which we have to be much more inclusive

5:02

than we were in the past.

5:07

The problem is senior management

5:10

still is a very old school mindset

5:10

that of the eighties

5:15

and nineties business model, you know,

5:15

that created the idea of profit sharing.

5:19

And that's

5:19

what really mattered in the boardroom.

5:22

What we're seeing now is the boardroom has a table or a chair

5:24

for empathy, a chair for culture.

5:28

And this is how the law firm is now being measured by its clients

5:30

and its potential talent.

5:34

So when you think about the idea of

5:34

am I a woke firm

5:39

because I'm going to identify

5:39

by Black Lives Matter

5:42

or I'm going to identify Black History,

5:42

or I'm going to celebrate Pride,

5:46

or I'm going to celebrate

5:46

and elevate the women within our firm.

5:50

Or do we look at diversity, inclusion as,

5:50

you know, this is humanity.

5:54

And when you welcome humanity

5:54

with open arms,

5:58

you get a lot more innovation,

5:58

collaboration, productivity,

6:04

happier people, and I think even greater business

6:06

development, growth opportunities.

6:10

So I think that that's really been the trend in where

6:12

I've been seeing the opportunities

6:16

to really talk about

6:16

how each individual community

6:20

collectively under DE&I,

6:25

a charge

6:25

that we're all under at the moment, and

6:29

then add that to the wellbeing component

6:29

which has really percolated to the top.

6:36

I think it puts a lot of power

6:37

in the idea of change and how we have

6:41

to better adapt to these changes

6:41

so we can create these cultures

6:45

that attract, retain and stay relevant.

6:52

So many chapters

6:52

like mine offer study groups,

6:57

and what I like about joining a study

6:57

group is it's more of a commitment.

7:02

You have something that is more organized

7:02

and structured

7:07

to get you through

7:07

this whole study period,

7:10

because it can be somewhat overwhelming

7:10

how many

7:14

reference materials there are

7:14

and things that you may want to study.

7:17

And it also affords you the opportunity

7:17

to maybe have some study buddy

7:21

study buddies,

7:21

as we call them, to study with.

7:26

I have just found that

7:26

to be a successful one.

7:28

I don't think I would have passed my exam,

7:28

Justin,

7:30

if I wasn't in a study group personally.