Legaltechlives with john alber, futurist, international legal technology association

#LegalTechLives with John Alber, Futurist, International Legal Technology Association Longtime Strategic Innovation Partner at Bryan Cave LLP and current ILTA futurist, John Alber says he is too modest to mention the number of awards he has received over the years‌ but it’s up there.

John has held positions as a repo man for the IRS, a CEO of a company in the transportation sector and he served as Bryan Cave’s Strategic Innovation Partner for 16 years. During that time, Bryan Cave earned a reputation as being one of the most innovative firms in the world. John admits he loves his Barefoot Lady, a boat that takes him on many wonderful adventures and, as he says, takes him to the cleaners, as well.

Ava Chisling: Ok, let’s get right to it: what exactly is a futurist?

John Alber: I spend a lot of time thinking about the future of the legal profession, and then I reach out into the world and try to shape that future. I work with ILTA to help define a future-focused curriculum. I also speak, and I write for various publications, including my own blog Rethinking.Legal, and from time to time, I consult with law firms and others. And then I go back on the boat. It’s a hard life, but I feel someone has to do it.

AC: You have long been involved in re-shaping how legal services are delivered. What does being innovative mean today, compared to, say, 10 years ago?

JA: Innovation better be focused on redefining our miserable service model. Our clients are now quite vocal in telling us that our service is sluggish, antiquated, uncreative and frustrating. And while they’re saying that, we keep raising our prices. Where else does that business model work? Meanwhile, money is pouring into various New Law alternatives, quite a bit of it from our clients. All this means innovation is a mortal question. Peter Drucker said that businesses in a climate of change either lead change or die. There’s no denying we are in a climate of vast change.

AC: You have said that how we make agreements and enforce them has changed significantly due to things like blockchain and smart contracts. Can you explain how these technologies affect the average person?

JA: If the average person is a global financial institution worth a billion dollars, then I think blockchain is already becoming significant. Fintech engineers are reworking the infrastructure underlying global finance using blockchain and other related “trustless” technologies. For everyone else, I think we’ll see a slow erosion in the use of trusted intermediaries for various types of transactions and a substitution of trustless technologies. And all that will be invisible, until it isn’t, and we discover it’s everywhere.

AC: What are “design-thinking principles” and have you used this kind of thinking in your personal life?

JA: The foremost of design thinking’s five core principles (as defined by the Stanford d.school) is empathy. Empathy is not some feel-good, hippie kind of thing. It’s a disciplined effort to understand what it’s like to be someone else — a client, for example. Or a wife. I’ve been married

for almost 45 years and part of the reason for that longevity is the importation of empathy into our relationship.

AC: Why are people (including lawyers) so resistant to change?

JA: From the very first day of school, aspiring lawyers are taught the value of being correct. They’re often ridiculed for venturing any unusual answers. And that training sticks. Life works the same way. We are made to fear venturing outside the norm. We strive for comfort, predictability, and approval. But change entails embracing fear. Not avoiding it. Not minimizing it. Embracing it. And that is a learned skill.

One of the beauties of design thinking is that it brings structure and discipline to that learning process. It’s a path toward change.

AC: Tell me about the most surprising place Barefoot Lady has ever taken you?

I am constantly surprised at how often Barefoot Lady takes us to our checkbook. In our journey, maintenance has been a bigger factor than I expected. In terms of utter delight, our journey up the full length of the Tennessee River in autumn is still near the top. We’ve been to lots of gorgeous beaches and quaint coastal fishing villages, but that trip up the Tennessee into the foothills of the Smokies still stands out.

AC: Do you think leisure is underrated among professionals?

Do well-rounded people make better lawyers?

JA: What is truly underrated is curiosity. Many professionals live profoundly uncurious lives and that keeps them in a very confined space in the world. To my mind, the best question is always: “I wonder what it would be like to…” That kind of curiosity will get you out of the office and into the community, into music or the arts, and out into the world at large. That makes for a full, rich life.

AC: And finally, if I gave you a magic wand and the only thing it could do is create the ideal law firm, what would it look like?

Here again, curiosity comes into play — and its cousin empathy. To my mind, the ideal law firm would have both in abundance. And that would translate into a completely different client experience than has become the norm. I think a firm like Bartlit Beck embodies those values. They have no hourly fees, only fixed fees with performance bonuses, and a record of both meeting budget and earning bonuses. The firm uses every

technology available. The focus is not on AI or any other tech. It’s on transforming what it’s like to be a client. And that is ideal.

AC: I know that ROSS believes using technology is focusing on the client because it can make legal work more precise, easier, and faster — which means better results and less cost for the client. Thank you for your time, John. See you on the St. Lawrence River!

Tagged in Law, Legal, Legaltechlives, Legaltech, Ilta

By Ava Chisling on April 18, 2017.

Canonical link Exported from Medium on August 18, 2017.