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Chances are, you’ve heard or read (or both) about the ongoing debate around working remotely in law-firms. I won’t open that debate here, though it’s interesting and, from my perspective, important and will only gain in relevance. Looking at today’s reality in law firms, chances also are that you and your team are, at least for the main part, not working remotely. Which means that very likely you are spending a major part of your waking time in the close physical vicinity of your colleagues (whether lawyers or in any other role). No matter what the upsides of remote work may be, there are

It was at a recent training event at a top-tier law firm. I addressed a group of scary-smart, predominantly junior associates. While the core of the event was about a slightly different topic, a bit of Q&A back and forth led me to the general comment that to be a successful and effective transactional lawyer, it is indispensable to have an interest in and at least some knowledge of what drives the client, what the client’s day-to-day is all about – business. We spoke about commercial knowledge and awareness, what it entails at a most basic level, how it can be built and expanded and how it can

Law has been around in one form or another for a couple of thousand years. One would guess that during that time one thing or the other found its way into it that actually works and is really useful, deep and with a lot of practical weight. Unfortunately, with everyday life being as full as it is, we rarely look at law that way. This is one of a loose series of short pieces on items where I believe that the practical knowledge that through the ages has founds its way into the law could be used in an equally practical way to help

What do you do? Yeah, I know…you’re a lawyer. Or a training professional. Maybe a partner in a law firm. But that’s not what I meant. My question wasn’t about getting a short version of your organisational function or your professional title. I asked what it is you actually do. What is your work about? Who do you help? Why? How? Why not others? Or differently? Where’s the focus? Try to answer in one sentence. If that doesn’t work (it sure didn’t for me), try it in three first and then pare it down to one. And then say that sentence out lout (maybe at

The average US-American checks their personal phone app. 150 times a day (not a misprint). After a disruption it can take each of us up in excess of 10 minutes to re-focus our attention on whatever we were doing previously. There are lots of statistics like these, some more helpful and relevant than others. One thing seems to be clear – as efficent and helpful as some elements of modern web-based technologies are, they can also be a vicious attack on the time available to us. Some of the activities tech offers us seem to be magnetic, seem to suck us in. We start