The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly had a seismic and lasting impact on how the business of law is conducted. Whilst 2020 certainly expedited changes that were already trending – flexible work schedules, fully-remote offices, revised resource allocations, new client expectations – it also forced firms to adopt practices, methodologies, and strategies that pre-COVID they insisted they could not.

These changes are not only here to stay but have become the expectation. Law firm attorneys, staff, and indeed clients are no longer interested in a traditional office, nor the practices that typically occurred within them. The modern law firm needs to evolve with both employee and consumer expectations in order to stay abreast with the post-pandemic world.

The Post-Pandemic Law Firm looks at how law firms can make a paradigm shift, adopting an entirely new business model that focuses on providing outcomes, outputs, and results to their clients and internally places the wellbeing of their team as a cornerstone to the future long-term success and sustainability of the legal profession. Chapters include changes to business models, virtual and remote working, how the pandemic has affected women in the profession, the future of dispute resolution, M&A activity and changes to pricing models – all authored by highly respected practitioners in the modern legal system.

For those law firms leaders and lawyers that realize a ‘return to normal’ is exactly the wrong approach, there is an opportunity to create a brighter future where work–life balance, market innovation, and smart use of technology will define the law firm of the future.

John Chisholm
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chisholmjohn/

John Chisholm is a third generation “recovering” lawyer, previously a partner, managing partner, and chief executive of Australian law firms. John established his own consultancy in 2005 to share his expertise and experience with professional firms who look to maximize their performance by adopting better and different business models and mindsets. He now speaks, educates, facilitates, coaches, and consults. As a practicing lawyer, John was well placed to experience first-hand both the benefits but also the drawbacks of the professions billing their services solely by reference to time. He has worked with many professional firms (and their customers) around the world, assisting them with both a mindset change, and the practical implementation and application of moving towards a timeless pricing model. John co-founded the Innovim Group – an international advisory practice that equips knowledge firms to transform for success by helping them to understand the value they create and how to capture that value with strategic pricing. John is a senior fellow of the VeraSage Institute, an international think tank of thought leaders and innovators for professional firms, adjunct professor of Law at La Trobe University Law School (2018-2021), fellow of the College of Legal Practice Management (US) and distinguished fellow of the Centre for Legal Innovation (Aus) 2019-2020. He has written numerous articles, papers, and blogs on pricing and business model change and has presented and spoken to thousands of professionals on the topic.

Debbie Epstein Henry
https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbieepsteinhenry/

Debbie Epstein Henry is an expert, bestselling author, public speaker, and podcast host on careers, workplaces, women, and law. Debbie runs DEH Consulting, Speaking, Writing and consults with and speaks at private retreats, public events, and conferences for companies, law firms, and other professional service firms as well as non-profits. Debbie’s interna-tional work includes multiple engagements in The Hague as well as in Paris at the French Senate and in London and Vienna and other cities abroad. For 20 years, hundreds of news outlets have featured her work, including authorsThe New York Times, NBC Nightly News, The Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, and The National Law Journal. In 2020, Debbie launched a podcast, Inspiration Loves Company, where she conducts interviews and explores how to do better and be better at life, work, and everything in-between. She delves into issues including courage, women, technology, learning, race, entrepreneurship, careers, happiness, leadership, balance and more. Debbie runs the DEH Speaker Series, offering quarterly programming by webcast with New York Times bestselling authors, TED speakers, and thought leaders. In 2007, she conceived of the Best Law Firms for Women initiative, a national survey she developed and ran for a decade with Working Mother to annually select the top 50 law firms for women and report on industry trends.

Debbie is the author of Law and Reorder, the #1 bestselling ABA Flagship book for 2011 and the co-author of another ABA bestselling flagship book in 2015, Finding Bliss. By 2008, her public speaking, press exposure and advocacy enabled her to build a national network of over 10,000 lawyers. From there, in 2011, Debbie co-founded Bliss Lawyers, a company employing high caliber attorneys to work on temporary engagements for in-house legal department and law firm clients. In 2020, Bliss Lawyers was acquired by Axiom, the global leader in high-caliber, on-demand legal talent.Debbie volunteers her time with a number of non-profits. She is presi-dent of The Forum of Executive Women, a nomination-only, membership organization of the top 500 women in business in the Greater Philadelphia region. She also chairs Brooklyn Law School Women’s Leadership Circle, which runs a national women’s law student and alumnae initiative. Additionally, Debbie serves as an advisor to The Fourth Floor and an advisor to the New York State Bar Association Attorney Wellbeing Task Force.

Debbie has received numerous awards, including being named among the Philadelphia Business Journal’s “Women of Distinction”. In 2017, Debbie received the Anne X. Alpern Award, presented annually to a female lawyer who demonstrates excellence in the legal profession and who makes a significant professional impact on women in the law. She received her BA from Yale and her JD cum laude from Brooklyn Law School.

Patricia K. Gillette
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patriciagillette/

Patricia K. Gillette is one of the country’s leading experts and most sought-after speakers on gender diversity and equality. Rated as a top employment litigator and trial lawyer by Chambers and other organizations for 40 years and as a leader and rainmaker in her firms, Pat’s legal career focused on assisting Fortune 500 companies with their most difficult Firm issues and challenges. At the end of 2015, she resigned from her firm to pursue her passion for empowering women through keynote speaking and writing. She now tours the country speaking on issues that help women advance into leadership positions in their organizations.

Pat was invited to join JAMS in 2016 and she now spends some of her time mediating employment cases. Pat has been recognized for her work to advance women in the legal profession by many organizations. She is the 2018 recipient of the ABA Margaret Brent Award, the highest honor given to women lawyers for professional achievement and for advancing the interests of women lawyers. She has also received the ABA Golden Hammer Award, the California Women Lawyers Association’s Fay Stender Award, the Transformational Leadership Award as one of the Top Women Rainmakers, and the Barristers Association of San Francisco Award of Merit.

Pat is the co-founder of the Opt-In Project, a nationwide initiative focused on changing the structure of law firms to increase the retention and advance-ment of women. The team she co-chaired at the 2016 Hackathon created the Mansfield Rule, which has now been adopted by several law firms and corporations across the country as a means of immediately impacting the opportunities for women to advance into leadership positions.Pat has been a commissioner on the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, a member of ABA’s Gender Equity Task Force, co-chair of the BASF No Glass Ceiling Initiative, and has served on several non-profit boards dedicated to protecting and promoting women. She is currently a board member of DirectWomen and Girls Leadership.

Wayne Hassay
https://www.linkedin.com/in/waynehassay/

Wayne Hassay began private practice in 1991 as a civil litigator and is now the managing partner of Maguire Schneider Hassay, LLP. MSH is a mid-sized law firm for the Columbus, Ohio market. He serves on the board of directors of the American Bar Association affiliated Group Legal Services Association. His law firm serves as a provider firm for the legal service plan, LegalShield. Wayne is a member of the Ohio State Bar Association’s Access to Justice Task Force. He is a regional member of the Thrivent Financial Board of Directors. He is a frequent speaker and author on the evolution of the legal marketplace. As managing partner of MSH, his mission is to bring innovation and technology to the practice of law for the benefit of clients. The philosophy is to broaden access to justice by using technology in a way that helps clients afford the legal services they need. Wayne believes this will achieve the best possible result for his clients, while making their experience as stress-free as possible.

Ashley B. Jordan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-jordan-b3448439/

Ashley B. Jordan is a partner at Reed Smith LLP and a member of the firm’s insurance recovery practice. Ashley has helped recover more than $100m in insurance proceeds for Fortune and Global 500 companies, as well as middle market businesses and individuals. She was named a 2021 “Woman of Influence: Attorneys” by the Los Angeles Business Journal and frequently writes and speaks on insurance coverage and risk management.

Mary Juetten
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryjuetten/

Mary Juetten, the author of Small Law Firm KPIs: How to Measure your Way to Greater Profits and The Business of Legal: The Data-Driven Law Practice, plus founder and CEO of Traklight, has dedicated her more-than-35-year career to helping businesses achieve and protect their success. Mary is a professional accountant, attorney (admitted in Arizona and Washington states), mediator and is trained in collaborative law. Specializing in leading companies in transition or start-up phases and helping them create sustainable, operational, and financial growth, Mary wants entrepreneurs and businesses to have Fortune 500 style software solutions. Using her extensive education including Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill and a Juris Doctorate and Masters of Law from Arizona State, as well as her US and Canadian accounting and public accountant certifications, Mary created the only self-guided software platform that creates a custom intel-lectual property (IP) strategy plus assesses business risk. Mary founded Juetten Law in Washington and recently Singular Law Group in Arizona and is an international author, blogger, speaker, and mentor. In 2015, Mary co-founded Evolve Law, a sales and marketing channel for Traklight, and spoke internationally on change and technology adoption in the legal industry before selling the company to Above the Law.

Mary was named to the American Bar Association’s Legal Resource Technology Center 2016 Women in Legal Tech list and the FastCase Class of 2016. She also served on the Group Legal Services Association (GLSA) Board and taught both Technology Law and Access to Justice through Technology at Arizona State and lectures on the Business of Legal in Suffolk Law’s legal technology program. Mary is currently on the executive committee of the alternative dispute resolution section of the Washington State Bar Association.

Sally Kane
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sallykane/

Sally Kane is a business development manager for Reed Smith LLP with 15 years of experience in legal marketing. A former lawyer, she has been writing on the intersection of law practice and marketing since 2005 and her work has appeared in media outlets across the globe. She previously served as editor-in-chief of a national legal magazine and as a legal careers expert for TheBalance.com.

Yvonne Nath

Yvonne Nath is CEO of ALSP Advisor, a legal operations consultancy that helps law firms of all sizes create scalable business models and improve their value propositions to shareholders and clients. The lines between different types of legal service providers are blurring. Yvonne’s goal is to help legal service providers of any type find their blue ocean to stand out from the competition. Yvonne is also a law firm strategy consultant with LawVision where her team has been advising law firms on strategy for more than 30 years. She has her master’s degree in law firm manage-ment and is accredited in organizational culture. As a millennial, Yvonne is mindful of the impact that generational shifts, technological advances, and the evolution of work culture are having on the legal industry and she helps law firms navigate these changes. Her latest book, The Book on Law Firm Culture, was published in April 2021. Her thought leadership can also be found in The American Lawyer, Bloomberg Law, Legaltech News, Legal Evolution, Legal Business World, PinHawk, Law360, LawVision, Medium, Impact Lawyers, and more.

Jon Whittle
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonwhittle/

For the last ten years, Jon Whittle has been working with law firms developing strategies that build strong, commercially focused, businesses. Jon spent nine years in a senior leadership role at LexisNexis and is a recognized authority on what contributes to growth for law firms. Jon is a specialist in building real value using market intelligence and customer insight and is the architect and author of the widely read LexisNexis Bellwether Reports, which have played an important role in shaping the strategic development of law firms. Prior to LexisNexis, Jon ran a start-up and in management consulting having previously worked for two decades in board level positions driving commercial growth for some of the world’s largest intellectual property and media companies with extensive M&A experience both in the UK and internationally. He applies the fruits of his experience to the world of law firm development and now runs his own consultancy business (Jon Whittle Consulting Ltd) whilst also working as a consultant with Viv Williams Consulting. In addition to providing consulting services directly to law firms he is a regular speaker at legal conferences and seminars and regularly writes for the legal press on the strategic future of legal markets.

Viv Williams
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivwilliamsconsulting/

Viv Williams is a leading consultant to law firms on the topics of strategy, merger and acquisition, management, practice development, and marketing. Viv’s experience as a managing director of two floated plc companies adds a new dimension to law firms. He has the experience xvinecessary to provide an invaluable practical management insight that applies to all professional firms, and is a specialist in strategy, merger and acquisition and “lean management” theory, helping law firms to evolve. He provides the vision and inspiration for law firms to become more corporate. By applying corporate governance to a modern law firm, Viv helps them to improve their management systems and increase profitability.Viv is involved with several businesses serving the legal profession – he is the consulting director of Viv Williams Consulting, chairman of AWH Solicitors, CEO of Zaiwalla & Co and non-executive director of several law firms. Viv has written two books on law firm management and is regularly interviewed by the Law Society Gazette on a host of topics.Stuart Wilson is one of a few global marketing leaders with expertise as chief marketing officer of both Big Four and Big Law professional services firms. He is an innovative and transformational C-Level marketing executive who leverages brand, business development, business intelligence, marketing communications, and digital marketing solutions to win, develop, and grow customers and clients. Throughout his career, he has advised many of the world’s leading organizations regarding their marketing strategies including Coca-Cola, HSBC, InBev, P&G, American Express as well as Deloitte, PwC, EY and Lathan & Watkins. He has deep experience working across six continents and numerous geographies, having also lived and worked in London, Chicago, New York, and Toronto.

Alex Davies