scholarly journals Disruptive Innovation Within the Legal Services Ecosystem

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald G. Billings ◽  
Douglas G. Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Systems Approach ◽  
Open Systems ◽  
Disruptive Innovation ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Disruptive Technology ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
Near Future

Many law firms have done little to address the opportunities and threats presented by potentially disruptive technology (DT), such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that some law firm leaders use to address the potentially detrimental influences of DT on their organizations. The systems approach to management was employed as the conceptual framework. Data were collected from 6 participants at 2 international law firms with offices in California, using semi-structured interviews and organizational artifacts. Data were analyzed using inductive and deductive coding and thematic analysis, resulting in 4 themes: (1) recognizing the legal ecosystem and legal firms are open systems, but organizational subsystems often function as semi-closed systems; (2) acknowledging that while DT represents the most significant potential challenge in the near future, the immediate challenge is improving technology, which requires organizational adjustments; (3) recognizing the need for firms to invest more heavily in innovation generation activities; and (4) realizing the need for increased utilization of augmenting technologies, such as AI or ML, to streamline non-advisory outputs. The findings of this study suggest that, while DI may pose a moderate threat, there are also significant advantages to adopting DI as a formal aspect of organizational strategy. The results of this study may contribute to social change by outlining ways in which firms can lower costs to clients while increasing access to legal services for those in underserved communities.

Knowledge Management in Law Firms

2011 ◽  
pp. 1818-1840
Author(s):  
Petter Gottschalk
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Knowledge ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Social Community ◽  
The Creation

Law enforcement is of concern to law firms. A law firm can be understood as a social community specializing in the speed and efficiency in the creation and transfer of legal knowledge (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998). Many law firms represent large corporate enterprises, organizations, or entrepreneurs with a need for continuous and specialized legal services that can only be supplied by a team of lawyers. The client is a customer of the firm, rather than a particular lawyer. According to Galanter and Palay (1991, p. 5), relationships with clients tend to be enduring:

scholarly journals AI-enabled business models in legal services: from traditional law firms to next-generation law companies?

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Armour ◽  
Mari Sako
Keyword(s):  
Business Model ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Corporate Form ◽  
New Business ◽  
Employee Incentives ◽  
New Business Models

Abstract What will happen to law firms and the legal profession when the use of artificial intelligence (AI) becomes prevalent in legal services? We address this question by considering three related levels of analysis: tasks, business models, and organizations. First, we review AI’s technical capabilities in relation to tasks, to identify contexts where it is likely to replace or augment humans. AI is capable of doing some, but not all, legal tasks better than lawyers and is augmented by multidisciplinary human inputs. Second, we identify new business models for creating value in legal services by applying AI. These differ from law firms’ traditional legal advisory business model, because they require technological (non-human) assets and multidisciplinary human inputs. Third, we analyze the organizational structure that complements the old and new business models: the professional partnership (P2) is well-adapted to delivering the legal advisory business model, but the centralized management, access to outside capital, and employee incentives offered by the corporate form appear better to complement the new AI-enabled business models. Some law firms are experimenting with pursuing new and old business models in parallel. However, differences in complements create conflicts when business models are combined. These conflicts are partially externalized via contracting and segregated and realigned via vertical integration. Our analysis suggests that law firm experimentation with aligning different business models to distinct organizational entities, along with ethical concerns, will affect the extent to which the legal profession will become ‘hybrid professionals’.

scholarly journals Disruptive Innovation in Traditional Clusters: The Case of the Kerajet Ceramic Tile Cluster in Spain

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (24) ◽  
pp. 5513
Author(s):  
Jose Albors-Garrigos ◽  
Jose Luis Hervas-Oliver
Keyword(s):  
Ceramic Tile ◽  
Customer Orientation ◽  
Open Systems ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Disruptive Innovation ◽  
Incremental Innovation ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Disruptive Technology ◽  
Complex Technology ◽  
Regional Systems Of Innovation

Academic literature has often emphasized how firms in regional clusters exploit both place-specific local resources and external, world-class knowledge to strengthen their competitiveness by expanding the influence of regional systems of innovation. Innovation based on more complex and disruptive technologies tends to also be based on more open systems that utilize the clusters’ external networks. However, most of the literature has associated clusters with incremental innovation. This paper will analyze the determinants of disruptive innovation development in traditional (low and medium tech) clusters caused by high-tech entrepreneurs. It will analyze the case of the development of breakthrough innovation, its diffusion in the Spanish ceramic tile cluster, and its consequent diffusion in the industry worldwide. It will examine how market demands, customer orientation, technology diffusion from other industries, industry competitiveness, as well as internal and external networking of clusters can facilitate the development of complex technology within a common set of social capital goals, cognitive schemes, and knowledge. The paper is based on a case study and field work carried out over10 years in the field in the Italian and Spanish tile ceramic clusters. The main contribution of this paper to technology strategy theory will be thorough the utilization of the disruptive technology paradigm in explaining industry changes and sustainability.

Knowledge Management in Law Firms

2007 ◽  
pp. 252-282
Author(s):  
Petter Gottschalk
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Knowledge ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Social Community ◽  
The Creation

Law enforcement is of concern to law firms. A law firm can be understood as a social community specializing in the speed and efficiency in the creation and transfer of legal knowledge (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998). Many law firms represent large corporate enterprises, organizations, or entrepreneurs with a need for continuous and specialized legal services that can only be supplied by a team of lawyers. The client is a customer of the firm, rather than a particular lawyer. According to Galanter and Palay (1991, p. 5), relationships with clients tend to be enduring:

Practice and Privilege: Social Change and the Structure of Large Law Firms

1981 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Organizational Structure ◽  
Firm Growth ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Theory Of Law ◽  
The Relationship

Despite dramatic changes in size and specialization, large law firms have remained remarkably unchanged in other respects. Introducing research on major Chicago law firms, this article examines how large law firms have changed so much by changing so little. It proposes a theory of law firm growth emphasizing the relationship between changes in the market for sophisticated legal services and changes in the approach law firms have taken to organizing their practices. The author discusses the organizational structure of large law firms, giving particular attention to the various roles that lawyers play in such firms. After speculating on trends affecting large law firms, he points to implications of these trends for law and social change.

Law Firm Knowledge

2011 ◽  
pp. 288-318
Author(s):  
Petter Gottschalk
Keyword(s):  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Knowledge ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Social Community ◽  
Firm Knowledge ◽  
The Creation

A law firm can be understood as a social community specializing in the speed and efficiency in the creation and transfer of legal knowledge (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998). Many law firms represent large corporate enterprises, organizations, or entrepreneurs with a need for continuous and specialized legal services that can only be supplied by a team of lawyers. The client is a customer of the firm, rather than a particular lawyer. According to Galanter and Palay (1991, p. 5), relationships with clients tend to be enduring: Firms represent large corporate enterprises, organizations, or entrepreneurs with a need for continuous (or recurrent) and specialized legal services that could be supplied only by a team of lawyers. The client ’belongs to’ the firm, not to a particular lawyer. Relations with clients tend to be enduring. Such repeat clients are able to reap benefits from the continuity and economies of scale and scope enjoyed by the firm.

Negotiating Status: Pro Bono Partners and Counsels in Large Law Firms

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Atinuke O. Adediran
Keyword(s):  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Vulnerable Populations ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
The Status ◽  
Pro Bono

Law firm pro bono work provides access to justice to low-income people and other vulnerable populations. The professionals that manage pro bono programs are at the forefront of that process. The limited available research on these professionals do not often distinguish lawyers from other managers or theorize about their status vis-à-vis other law firm lawyers. Yet the status of lawyers who are also managers of pro bono programs influences both their identities and the management and provision of legal services and advocacy. Drawing on original demographic and interview data, this article shows how law firm pro bono partners and counsels navigate their ambiguous roles and negotiate their status as lawyers and managers. I find that pro bono partners and counsels navigate their ambiguous roles by striving to be perceived as “real” lawyers, reframe their roles as business generators, conform to the billing culture, and establish a common identity. They also negotiate their titles and office spaces to raise their profiles. Gender inequality influences the negotiation of office spaces and the approval of pro bono matters. These findings have implications for lawyers who manage pro bono programs and the legitimacy of pro bono work.

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