This document discusses the need for law schools and legal practices to adapt to 21st century trends by adopting a "value chain business model" approach. It notes that consumers increasingly demand legal services that are faster, cheaper, and more convenient. Adopting processes used by other industries, like project management techniques, can help law practices deliver consistent, high-quality services in a more cost-effective manner. The document advocates for law school curriculum to include training on technologies and skills like legal project management, document automation, and practice management to prepare students for this evolving model of legal services delivery.

1. Education for
21st Century
Law Practice
The Law Firm as a Factory for Producing
Legal Services
Florida Coastal School of Law

2. What do these organizations have in
common?
World Class Hotel Chain
World Class Hospital
World Class Law Firm

3. Commonalities
• Consistent Quality Every Time
• Processes in Place that Eliminate Waste and Cost
• Processes That Are Designed to Continually Improve
Output
• Feedback Loops
• A Culture of Innovation – Say Yes – Not No!

4. Trends in the Legal
Industry
• Commoditization and Standardization
• Change in Business Model
• “Solution Shop” to “Value-Chain Business Model”
• “Lean” Lawyering
• The Internet is becoming the new platform for the
delivery of legal services.
• Consumers and small business want legal services
that re faster, more convenient, and less expensive.
• Consumers and small business want fixed fee,
limited legal services.

5. Business Model
Innovation
• Two Kinds of Business Models: “law practice today”
o “Solution-Shop” - Law Firms
• Problem solving
• Every “problem” is unique”
• Based on “information asymmetry”
• Command of a specialized technology
• Fee for services.
• Cost is no object.
• Based on “ Expertise”
• Experts/people are the primary resource.
o “Value-Chain” – like a factory.

6. Value- Chain Business
Model- A Law Factory
• Value Proposition + resources+ processes + profit
formula.
• Transformation of “inputs” into “products”
• Value proposition = cheaper, better, faster
o Resources, processes and profit formula support the value proposition.

7. Different Markets Require
Different Models
• Corporations and individuals have different needs
when it comes to legal services.
• Law firm’s as “solution shop providers’ have real
difficulty moving down market to serve consumers.
• When law firm’s employ limited legal services
methods, combined with technology and the
effective use of paralegals. Combined with process
engineering technologies such as legal project
management that can create a new value
proposition that delivers legal services better, faster,
and cheaper.

8. Law School Education
• Law schools teach students exclusively to work in a
“solution shop environment”. This works if you are
going to be employed in a large law firm serving
corporate clients.
• If you are going into solo to small law firm practice,
consumers and small business the training and
education requirements are different.
• If law students are not taught how to serve this
marketplace with “value chain solutions” they will
loose out to providers like LegalZoom who know
how to serve this marketplace.

9. Solo and Small Law Firm
Practice
• Evolving towards the Value-Chain Business Model
• So are some large law firms
• Requires different skills sets
• Disconnect in legal education: Training for the
wrong marketplace– except top tier law schools

10. What do we mean by a
Value Chain Model Law?
• Lower your overhead - whether you’re in-house or in
private practice
• improve turnaround times
• increase client satisfaction (internal or external)
• price more accurately
• free up limited resources for other valuable work

11. Lean Law: -- Value
Criteria
• does your work move the matter forward?
• is it what the client wants and is willing to pay for?
• is your work done right the first time?
• Is the quality of your work consistent over time?
• Anything that doesn’t add value is waste?

12. Attorneys as Project
Managers
• I didn’t go to law school to be a project manager.
• Except you a project manager anyway. Every legal
matter is a project.
• Commonsense approach to managing work flow
used by every other business.

13. Why Process Management
Technologies?
• Help you better control or understand the cost.
• Control of predict the time spent, both cumulative
time (hours) and running time (start to finish).
• Be better prepared for events, especially
unplanned events.
• Engage the most appropriate resources to do the
work bested suited to them.
o Out-source?
o Paralegal?
o Junior Associate
• Improve communication with the client.

14. Doing Legal Work
• If you can’t break down a legal matter into tasks,
deadlines, costs, people, etc., you really don’t know
what you are doing.

15. Analogy
• Think of what it takes to build a house.
• Think of the estimates that the subcontractors
make.
• Think what happens if a subcontractor misses a
deadline or under estimates the budget.
• If a general contractor can build a $5,000,000 a
house and bring it on budget and on time, why
can’t a lawyer estimate how much a legal project
will take to complete – even assuming that certain
risks are unknown.
• Risks are always built into the project for building a
house.

16. Framework
• Not about the practice of law, but the mechanics
of practice.
• The law per se is not a business, but the practice of
law is.
• Law firms exist to make a profit
• Even the practice of Public interest law requires that
cases be managed with budget and time
constraints and be “completed.”

17. Project Management
• Analyze Tasks
• Steps to Take
• Determine Time Requirements
• Create Deadlines
• Determine who is assigned to which task.
• Staffing the Steps
• Determine cost parameters.
• Create a budget.
• Link budget to tasks and deadlines.
• Communications
• What’s likely to go wrong – build in risks.

18. Process Maps

19. Metrics
• Client Satisfaction
• Adherence to Deadlines
• Workload (hours)
• Adding Business Value
• Client Retention
• Renewal Business
• Consistent Quality No Matter What The Deal.

20. Fixed Fee Practice
• You need to know your costs;
• You need to determine in advance who will do the
work;
• You need to know how long it will take to do each
tasks.
• You need to

21. Skills Necessary
• Project Management
• Knowledge of Smart Technologies
• Outsourcing and Management of Paralegals
• Design of Limited Legal Services
• Web Development Skills and Virtual Law Firm
Technologies
• Mobile Technologies
• Fixed fee and pricing strategies
• Law Practice Technologies

22. Tomorrow’s Lawyers: An Introduction to
Your Future by Richard Susskind

23. Susskind’s Disruptive Technologies
• Automated Document Assembly
• Relentless connectivity- Mobile
• The electronic legal marketplace
• Online Legal Guide
• Legal Open Sourcing
• Workflow and Legal Project Management
• Embedded Legal Knowledge: Expert Systems
• Ediscovery Management
• Online Dispute Settlement

24. Certificate in Law Practice Technology
and Management at Florida Coastal
School of Law
• COURSE IN LAW PRACTICE TECHNOLOGY AND LAW
PRACTICE MANAGEMENT (3 CREDITS).
• At least 10 one credit electives.
• Modular approach
• Career-oriented.
• On-line
• Interactive
• National faculty -- major thought leaders.
• Advisory Board

25. Law School Program – Based on
Tomorrow’s Lawyers
• 1. Training Lawyers as Entrepreneurs (1 credit)
• 2. Ethics of Online Legal Services (1 credit)
• 3. Social Media in Law Practice (1 credit)
• 4. Document Automation Applications (2 credits)
•
5. Legal Project Management (1 credit)
•
7. Legal Process Outsourcing (1 credit)

26. Elective courses ( 1 credit
each)
• 7.. Legal Expert Systems (2 credits)
• 8. eDiscovery Management (1 credit)
• 9. Legal Process Re-Design Technology (Lean
Engineering) (1 credit)
10. Access to Justice and Legal Technology (1
credit)
• 11. Law Practice Technology and Management (3
credits)

27. Research and Development:
How our technologies support the delivery of online legal services
• Web Legal Advisors
 Smart Legal Documents
 Legal Expert Systems
 Workflow Design.
 Legal Process Engineering
 Web delivery workflow
 GUI – Usage Interface
 Visualization
 Big Data
 Mobile technologies

28. Training in Legal Technology
Specialties equals New Careers
 Legal Processing Engineering
 Virtual Lawyering
 Law Practice Management
 eDiscovery and Document
Management
 Predictive Coding
 Document Automation
 Expert Legal System Development
 Legal IT Management
 Legal Outsourcing Management

29. Dedicated Educational Site from
Florida Coastal School of Law
www.digital-lawyer.com