Syllabus

Welcome to L21C, the law firm for the twenty-first century!

You are a partner in L21C, a new and different law firm. At L21C we want to do things better – for our clients, for the wider community and society, and for the people who work here.

Our vision is to find ways to serve clients better: to bring down costs so that real people can afford us (and so we beat the competition); to practice our profession ethically, based on deep reflection about what ethical obligations require of us in a changing world; and to do all of this while also living live good and fulfilled lives.

As Managing Partner, I will facilitate weekly partner meetings where we will discuss the new challenges and opportunities emerging in the legal services marketplace. In preparation for our meetings, please read the following materials, which we will draw on for our discussions:

• Mitch Kowalski, Avoiding Extinction: Reimagining Legal Services for the 21^st Century (available at the bookstore)
• Richard Susskind, Tomorrow’s Lawyers: An Introduction to Your Future (available at the bookstore)
• Canadian Bar Association, Futures: Transforming the Delivery of Legal Services in Canada (available online)

***You should read these materials in full by no later than our second partner meeting on September 16. It’s a good idea to get started early.***

There are also additional materials to read for each week’s meeting, as set out in the partner meeting schedule below.

The Managing Partner’s Office Hours

Wednesdays, 10 am to 12 pm, or by appointment – OM 4745

 

Our Mission

(aka Educational Objectives)

Over the next 13 weeks, we will hold weekly partner meetings and you will work in teams inside and outside of the meeting times.

A key objective is for you to develop a road map for your legal career based on sustained reflection about your own professional and personal aspirations and on engagement with the changes, pressures and new opportunities facing lawyers today and tomorrow.

We will work towards that objective by examining the following questions (among others):

• How can we find opportunities in a changing legal services market to grow in new and better directions?
• How are technology, globalization and economic transformation changing the practice of law?
• How should the regulation of legal practice adapt to meet the needs of the profession, the public and the administration of justice?
• How will the legal profession meet the challenge of providing meaningful access to justice for ordinary and disadvantaged Canadians?
• How can lawyers significantly reduce costs so that ordinary people can access legal services, and what’s going to happen to lawyers if we fail to do it?
• How can lawyers do better at understanding what clients want, and delivering it?
• What opportunities exist to develop new business models that serve unmet needs for legal services?
• What will legal jobs in the future look like, and are we ready for them?
• How can legal education best prepare students for successful futures?
• How can lawyers develop satisfying and rewarding careers in keeping with our personal and professional aspirations and our responsibilities to society?

You will also work on learning and improving more specific skills, including:

• Working effectively in a team;
• Legal practice management skills such as opening new client matters, recording time and working collaboratively on firm documents using a cloud-based practice management platform (see “Use Clio” under “Firm Policies,” below);
• Creating professional-quality written work product by doing successive drafts, self-editing, and peer-reviewing one another’s work; and
• Using social media to enhance your profile and to grow your professional network.

Your most significant task is your team project: LawHack.

Each team will present its LawHack project to a panel of “Legal Dragons” in one of the last two partners’ meetings of the year (on November 27 or December 2).

L21C’s Management Philosophy

(aka Course Methodology)

 

L21C confronts the messy, complex problems of contemporary legal practice using a methodology called problem-based learning.

You will work in teams to engage actively with the problems and opportunities that face lawyers entering the twenty-first century marketplace. Problem-based learning involves using what you already know to analyze problems, identifying what’s missing in your knowledge, carrying out self-directed research and reflection to increase what you know, and using your imagination, analytical ability and critical thinking skills.

Most of the meeting time will be devoted to active discussions and tasks intended to help you move forward in developing your ideas and solutions.

This will not look much like a traditional lecture or law class. We all come to the meetings to share ideas and to make our ideas better by examining them critically, refining them, and working out effective ways to put them into practice.

Work Assignments and Performance Evaluation at L21C

There are no grades at L21C! You will pass if I determine that you have successfully completed the requirements for the course, including attendance at meetings and the assignments listed below.

Performance evaluation measures your work against the goals of performing at your highest possible level and striving to improve your knowledge and skills. The purpose of performance evaluation is to provide you with constructive feedback so that you can keep improving.

To pass, you must complete a portfolio of individual and group assignments, as follows:

• Your 21^st Century Lawyer Manifesto, (due December 9)
• A client memo drafted collaboratively with your team; you will have a choice between two topics (due November 4)
• One blog post on the L21C blog, due on the date you sign up for (sign-up is on TWEN)
• At least three comments on other posts on the L21C blog, on dates of your choice (but no later than December 2)
• Connect through social media with a relevant expert/leading thinker, and document how you made the connection and what you learned (due December 9)
• Prepare at least one question for each guest speaker (see the list of speakers on TWEN) and ask at least one of the questions during the semester (try to ask in person, but if you have the option of making alternative arrangements, which must be discussed with me, such as asking the question by e-mail)
• THE MAIN ASSIGNMENT: Your team’s LawHack project (your project will be presented on either November 27 or December 2)
• A final written reflection on your own experience and performance in the course, and what your personal career road map looks like after this experience (due December 9)

Some of these assignments involve posting your work in fora accessible to the public (on the course blog or on social media). These tasks are connected to one of the course themes: exploring the power of social media for marketing and building professional networks. You have the right to privacy and anonymity, and you may choose not to make your work public with no penalty or consequences to you. You will have the option of posting anonymously or completing an alternative assignment should you so choose. These options will be discussed in our meeting on September 16.

Your completed portfolio, along with a checklist confirming that you have completed all the required items, must be submitted to the Managing Partner no later than December 9. More detailed instructions on the individual assignments will be provided during meetings and posted on TWEN.

The standard for passing the course is good-faith compliance with your responsibilities as a partner in the firm to a reasonable standard, as determined by the Managing Partner. Your responsibilities include coming to meetings, completing the assignments and making a constructive contribution to your team’s LawHack project. In the first class we will discuss as a group the standards that we expect of partners in order to pass the course. The standards we decide on as a group will form part of the criteria for passing and will be binding on everyone.

Firm Policies

BE A GOOD PARTNER. Take responsibility, work supportively with your team and the other partners, contribute. The success of this venture depends on you.

COME TO THE MEETINGS. It is very important that everyone be present for the meetings, and you are expected to attend them all. You get one free pass (i.e., you can miss one meeting without penalty – but please don’t unless you really need to!).* If you miss more than one meeting without an approved excuse, this may affect whether you pass the course. Being present at a meeting means you must be there on time and you must stay to the end. *There is one exception to this general policy: the make-up class on November 20. You are encouraged to attend but the “only one free pass” policy does not apply.

DON’T RECORD THE MEETINGS. Meetings will include talks by guest speakers and (I hope) a lot of participation by your colleagues. It is not fair or appropriate to record any of this. Furthermore, there is really not much point. Listen and participate instead.

ENGAGE ACTIVELY AND CONSTRUCTIVELY WITH GUEST SPEAKERS. When we have guest speakers in class, it’s a chance for you to give them an excellent impression of our Faculty, of L21C and of yourselves! Make the most of it.

ASK FOR ACCOMMODATION IF YOU NEED IT. Accommodation requests will be handled in accordance with the Faculty’s Academic Accommodation Policy and should be discussed with Associate Dean Jon Heshka as soon as possible.

ACT WITH INTEGRITY in all things, including but not limited to following the letter and spirit of applicable regulations and using sources properly. If you use something someone else wrote in your work, cite it correctly. Group work requires collaboration with your team; your own individual work must be yours alone. Read and follow (i) the Regulations of the Faculty of Law (please pay particular attention to Article 15 – Plagiarism / Cheating / Other Academic Misconduct) and (ii) the University’s Academic Integrity Policy (pay particular attention to Article VI – Forms of Academic Dishonesty). Any violation of these policies may cause you to fail the course.

USE CLIO. We will use Clio, a cloud-based practice management platform, to try out law practice management basics, like tracking and billing your time and working collaboratively on documents.

FOLLOW THE CROWDSOURCED FIRM POLICIES that we will develop as a partnership at the first meeting.

BE PRO PUG. L21C is (obviously) a pug-friendly work environment and all partners must love or, at a minimum, tolerate pugs.

Obviously.

Partner Meeting Schedule:

Wednesdays 2:30-5:30 pm, OM 3632

 

Date	Theme of the meeting	Reading material*
Sept 9	The mission statement for your life as a lawyer (or, how not to have a bullshit job)	David Graeber, “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs”   “The Legal Profession in the 21st Century,” Remarks of the Rt Hon Beverley McLachlin, PC, Chief Justice of Canada at the 2015 Canadian Bar Association Plenary (August 14, 2015)
Sept 16	A manifesto for 21st century lawyers (or, what do we do now?)	Rachel Rodgers, “The 21st Century Lawyer Manifesto” Bruce Godfrey, “‘The 21st Century Lawyer Manifesto’ – A Respectful Dissent” Ben W. Heineman Jr., William F. Lee and David B. Wilkins, “Lawyers as Professionals and as Citizens: Key Roles and Responsibilities in the 21st Century” pp 5-35 William D. Henderson, “Three Generations of US Lawyers: Generalists, Specialists, Project Managers”
Sept 23	The big law paradigm in a changing world	Ben W. Heineman Jr., William F. Lee and David B. Wilkins, “Lawyers as Professionals and as Citizens: Key Roles and Responsibilities in the 21st Century” pp 36-48 CBA Legal Futures Initiative (Bruce MacEwen), You Can’t Argue with 100 Years of Success: Navigating Beyond the Inflection Point William D. Henderson, “From Big Law to Lean Law” Richard Susskind, “The Path to Commoditization” (Chapter 2 of The End of Lawyers?) Jill Lepore, “The Disruption Machine” Adam Dodek, “Canada: Death of a Legal Icon, Dawn of Change?” HLS case studies: “The Demise of Howrey”
Sept 30	Who’s eating traditional law firms’ lunch?	CBA Legal Futures Initiative, Innovations in Legal Services: 14 Eye-Opening Cases Isaac Figueras, “The LegalZoom Identity Crisis: Legal Form Provider or Lawyer in Sheep’s Clothing?” HLS case studies: “Axiom: Getting Down to Business”
Oct 7	The robots are coming	Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne, “The Future of Employment: How Susceptible are Jobs to Computerisation?” John Lanchester, “The Robots are Coming”
Oct 14	Alternative business structures (ABS)	Gillian K. Hadfield, “The Cost of Law: Promoting Access to Justice Through the (Un)Corporate Practice of Law” International Review of Law and Economics (2014) Richard Devlin and Ora Morson, “Access to Justice and the Ethics and Politics of Alternative Business Structures” HLS case studies: Slater & Gordon “A” and “B”
Oct 21	The death of the billable hour?	Bank of Nova Scotia v. Diemer, 2014 ONCA 851 Stuart L. Pardau, “Bill, Baby, Bill: How the Billable Hour Emerged as the Primary Method of Attorney Fee Generation and Why Early Reports of its Demise May be Greatly Exaggerated” HLS case studies: “Three Vignettes on Pricing of Professional Services”
Oct 28	Access to justice I: focus on low-income and marginalized communities	Canadian Bar Association, Reaching Equal Justice Report: An Invitation to Envision and Act, Chapter 2 (“Equal Justice Strategies”), pp. 58-121. Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters, Access to Civil and Family Justice: A Roadmap for Change (aka the Cromwell report) National Self-Represented Litigants Project, Identifying and Meeting the Needs of Self-Represented Litigants (Final Report), pp 38-55 (“Decision-Making over Self-Representation”) and 90-95 (“Private legal services”). Legal Services Corporation, Report of the Summit on the Use of Technology to Enhance Access to Justice
Nov 4	Access to justice II: focus on middle income	Trial Lawyers of British Columbia v. British Columbia (AG,) 2014 SCC 59 Gillian K. Hadfield and Jamie Heine, “Life in the Law-Thick World: The Legal Resource Landscape for Ordinary Americans” Paul A. Vayda and Stephen B. Ginsberg, “Legal Services Plans: Crucial-Time Access to Lawyers and the Case for a Public-Private Partnership” Darin Thompson, “The Growth of Online Dispute Resolution and its Use in British Columbia”
Nov 11	REMEMBRANCE DAY: NO MEETING
Nov 18	Legal education	Ben W. Heineman Jr., William F. Lee and David B. Wilkins, “Lawyers as Professionals and as Citizens: Key Roles and Responsibilities in the 21st Century” pp 49-67 William D. Henderson, “A Blueprint for Change” Harry W. Arthurs, “The Future of Legal Education: Three Visions and a Prediction” Neil W. Hamilton, “Changing Markets Create Opportunities: Emphasizing the Competencies Legal Employers Use in Hiring New Lawyers”
Friday Nov 20 4:30 – 7:30	Diversity, equity, and satisfaction NOTE ROOM CHANGE TO MEGA-ROOM	David T. Zaring and William D. Henderson, “Young Associates in Trouble” “Lawyers with Lowest Pay Report More Happiness” (New York Times) Law Society of British Columbia, Towards a More Representative Legal Profession: Better Practices, Better Workplaces, Better Results
Nov 25	Presentations
Dec 2	Presentations

* In addition to the listed readings, you should review and come prepared to discuss relevant portions of the three required texts (Susskind, Kowalski and the CBA Futures Report). You can use your own judgment about what is relevant.