Future Law Podcast

Miguel Willis caught the innovation and entrepreneurship bug early in his law school career, and he exited with a JD and leadership of an innovative program that blends technology skills, design, law, and the public interest. The Access to Justice Technology Fellows program connects law students with civil justice organizations for an immersive, 10-week, paid project-based fellowship experience, changing lives in the community and priming the students for careers as 21st century lawyers....

Duc Trang, former private practitioner, general counsel, and now Managing Director of Major, Lindsey & Africa Transform Advisory Services, talks with Mike Madison about the changing marketplace for legal services and legal professionals and what those changes mean for private firms, for legal technology development, and for legal education. Also featured in this episode: Michael Madison, The Shapes and Letters of the Modern Lawyer (August 3, 2020). See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for...

Eric DeChant isn't a lawyer. He's a recent graduate of the novel Master of Science in Law program at Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law, which aims to give STEM professionals (like Eric) enough grounding in law to accelerate them into careers as allied legal professionals but not so much that they qualify to become licensed lawyers. Mike Madison interviews Eric to hear how he found the Northwestern program, what he thought of his time in school, and his plans for a future in...

Dan Rodriguez, formerly Dean of Northwestern Law and president of the Association of American Law Schools, gets inside the future of legal education for the benefit of legal professionals and new law graduates. The interview is hosted by Mike Madison. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Mike Madison sits down with Kevin Miller, CEO of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based LegalTech firm LegalSifter. LegalSifter is powered by tech developed in Pittsburgh's AI and robotics ecology, centered on Carnegie Mellon University. A seasoned lawyer-entrepreneur, Kevin shares his thoughts about what lawyers and law firms are doing well, and what they can do better with AI-powered tools. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Dan Hunter talks legal innovation and the future of law practice from the client's perspective with Carl White, founder and now Director and Chief Experience Officer with CXINLAW. CXINLAW partners with law firms in Australasia and the UK for training and education on excellence in client service. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Mike Madison talks with Dean Trish White and Andrea Sinner, the chair and director of the American Bar Association Commission on the Future of Legal Education. The Commission wrapped up two years' worth of work in March 2020 and published a report that reads more like a manifesto for change than a conventionally sober reflection. Find the ABA Commission Report online here. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Dan Hunter chats with University of Manchester students, Cian Heeley, Mandeep Hayer and Wunmi Akanji who were lucky enough to spend two weeks working with the geniuses at DWF on a legal design/innovation project with a very well-known sporting club in Manchester. Inspiring insights into the way that this sort of program changes how students think about the possibilities of law. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Margaret Hagan, a global leader in bringing design to legal education and law practice, talks with Michael Madison about what design is and why design matters, supplying some of her own back story along the way. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

In this, our last episode for 2019, we finally bring you our long-promised episode on Design Thinking in Law. The terrible trio talks around some spots from three guests, Margaret Hagan, Director of the Legal Design Lab at Stanford Law School; Carl White, CEO of CX in Law; and Cian Heely, a grad from Manchester University who worked with the amazing gang at DWF to solve for a client's problem. We use these spots as a jumping off point for a wider chat about what design thinking in law looks...

Dean Dan has been chatting with a lot of deans of late, and in this interview he talks with Dean Lesley Hitchens of the University of Technology, Sydney. In 2018 Professor Hitchens received the Financial Times Australian Legal Innovator Award, and her law school has pioneered a Legal Futures and Technology major. Listen as we chat about the kind of skills, knowledge, and attributes that law grads need to future-proof themselves. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

In this interview, we chat with Prof George Williams AO, dean of UNSW Law School. George has thought a great deal about what the future of law should look like, and when he took over the law school he conducted a listening tour with a huge range of stakeholders of his school. We talked with him about the challenges facing legal education, and how one of the most prestigious schools in the country is addressing the opportunities ahead. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy...

“The name’s Bond, Professor Nick James from Bond.” Seriously, I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited to use that joke. In this interview, Dan (that’s me) interviews Nick James, the dean of Bond Law. We chat about his take on the future of legal education in Australia, and what Bond are doing to push the boundaries. Nick is an amazing scholar and teacher, and Bond has the best ratings in the country for student engagement and satisfaction with teaching. Nick talks about how the future looks...

After diagnosing the state of US legal education a few months ago, in this episode the terrific trio talk about the nature of Australian law schools and discuss some of the challenges that they face in the years to come. With insights from guests Prof George Williams AO (UNSW), Prof Nick James (Bond) and Prof Lesley Hitchens (UTS), this is the first podcast from Dan in his new role of Executive Dean at QUT, and is sure to be a classic. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy...

In this interview, the last of our investigations of how law firms are becoming tech firms, Dan Hunter talks with Michelle Mahoney, the head of innovation at King & Wood Mallesons. She discusses the layered approach to technology and innovation that this elite, multinational firm provides, and divides up the task into four useful categories. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

In this interview, we chat with Deepak Pillai, a data analyst who works at the blue chip Australian law firm Clayton Utz. The firm took the unusual step of building a separate data analytics practice to complement its traditional legal practice. Deepak talks about why law firms might do this, how their clients respond to this type of offering, and how a data scientist from a social media marketing background came to be up close and personal with a bunch of lawyers. See...

In this interview, Dean Dan chats with Jonathan Patterson, the Managing Director & Head of Development of DWF Ventures in Manchester, England. DWF is a fascinating example of a law firm that has embraced managed legal operations, legaltech, and design thinking. The firm's incredibly successful listing this year on the London Stock Exchange was driven in large part by its ability to rethink how legal services are delivered, and we explore some of the ways in which DWF is how a tech firm. See...

In this episode we talk about the way that law firms have responded to the new technology world in different ways. This episode’s title comes from an observation we heard from the CEO of a legaltech firm who said that “every law firm is a tech firm.” What he meant was that every firm has an IT department, which isn’t that interesting a thought. But we realized that lots of firms do technology in interesting ways, and we wanted to explore these as lessons for everyone. We feature three...

Lisa Damon and Stephen Poor, innovators and leaders at the global law firm Seyfarth Shaw, talk with Mike Madison and Dean Dan Hunter about developing Seyfarth Lean, the name the firm gives to its widely-recognized applied innovation strategies: data-driven process improvements, project management techniques, and legal technology R&D that have changed the firm's DNA. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

In this interview, Dean Dan chats with his friend Simon Quirk, recovering lawyer, professional services consultant, and long-time serial entrepreneur. The discussion ranges over the nature of legal practice, how to do innovation in law firms, and what we should think about the new point solutions in legal tech and regtech. Join us, won't you? See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.