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Book
Practicing Legal Design
Published: 2025
Pages: 282
eBook: 9781837231218
Drawing on extensive experience in legal design, innovation, and transformation, this book blends strategic vision with hands-on experience.
Legal design is no longer a niche concept but a growing movement reshaping how legal services are delivered, understood, and experienced. While discussions around innovation in law have gained momentum, meaningful adoption often lags behind ambition. Many legal professionals recognize the need for transformation but struggle to integrate a prototype-driven and interdisciplinary approach into their working environments.
This book bridges the gap between theory and execution, offering a comprehensive guide to implementing legal design in law firms, legal departments, institutions, and other legal service environments. From exploring user-centered approaches to structuring design-driven processes, it provides actionable insights into how legal design can enhance clarity, accessibility, and efficiency in legal services.
Drawing on extensive experience in legal design, innovation, and transformation, this book blends strategic vision with hands-on experience. It goes beyond high-level discussions to address the real-world challenges of integrating legal design thinking into legal practice, whether that means overcoming organizational resistance, aligning stakeholders, or proving the value of legal design to decision makers. It also offers practical tools and frameworks to navigate the hidden complexities of legal design projects, ensuring that design-driven change is not only embraced but sustained.
Whether you’re just starting your journey in legal design or already working on innovation projects, this book serves as a practical resource that you can revisit as challenges and opportunities arise. By blending theory with real-world application, it provides a roadmap for making legal design a fundamental and effective part of legal practice.
This book bridges the gap between theory and execution, offering a comprehensive guide to implementing legal design in law firms, legal departments, institutions, and other legal service environments. From exploring user-centered approaches to structuring design-driven processes, it provides actionable insights into how legal design can enhance clarity, accessibility, and efficiency in legal services.
Drawing on extensive experience in legal design, innovation, and transformation, this book blends strategic vision with hands-on experience. It goes beyond high-level discussions to address the real-world challenges of integrating legal design thinking into legal practice, whether that means overcoming organizational resistance, aligning stakeholders, or proving the value of legal design to decision makers. It also offers practical tools and frameworks to navigate the hidden complexities of legal design projects, ensuring that design-driven change is not only embraced but sustained.
Whether you’re just starting your journey in legal design or already working on innovation projects, this book serves as a practical resource that you can revisit as challenges and opportunities arise. By blending theory with real-world application, it provides a roadmap for making legal design a fundamental and effective part of legal practice.
Table of Contents
| Cover | Cover | |
|---|---|---|
| Title Page | i | |
| Copyright | ii | |
| Contents | iii | |
| Acknowledgments | xi | |
| About the author | xiii | |
| Preface | xv | |
| Introduction: Why this book? | xvii | |
| Part I: Ontology | 1 | |
| Introduction to Part I: Opening the Door | 3 | |
| Chapter 1: So, this is legal design | 5 | |
| Law and the Oral-B toothbrush | 5 | |
| A definition (or many definitions?) | 6 | |
| What legal design is not | 7 | |
| A panacea for all evil? Well, no... | 9 | |
| A global movement | 10 | |
| Prototyping in the legal world | 12 | |
| The legal designer – a new job? | 14 | |
| When law firms offer legal design services | 15 | |
| Chapter 2: Principles of legal design | 17 | |
| Why do we need to speak about principles? | 17 | |
| Principle 1: Human-centrism | 18 | |
| Principle 2: Co-creation | 19 | |
| Principle 3: Diversity and inclusion | 20 | |
| Principle 4: A non-hierarchical approach | 20 | |
| Principle 5: Process first | 21 | |
| Principle 6: Divergence and convergence | 22 | |
| Principle 7: Fail fast | 22 | |
| Principle 8: How might we? | 23 | |
| Principle 9: Productification | 24 | |
| Principle 10: KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) | 24 | |
| Principle 11: Dignity | 25 | |
| Principle 12: + 1 | 25 | |
| Future principles | 26 | |
| Chapter 3: The why of legal design | 29 | |
| New context, new demand | 29 | |
| A form of innovation - or innovations | 30 | |
| The legal experience | 32 | |
| The illusion of reading (legal) texts | 33 | |
| F-patterns and scanning - how we actually read | 35 | |
| A neurological case for legal design | 36 | |
| A nudging law | 37 | |
| Is legal design just for B2C? | 39 | |
| Chapter 4: Abandoning the legalese – communicating plain | 45 | |
| A quick introduction to plain language | 45 | |
| What does it mean to communicate clearly? | 46 | |
| Benefits of clarity and comprehension | 48 | |
| The plain language ISO | 50 | |
| A world in emojis | 52 | |
| Notes about inclusive language | 54 | |
| The intercultural factor | 56 | |
| Thoughtful perspective: Michael Doherty | 61 | |
| Part II: Legal Design and... | 67 | |
| Introduction to Part II: Beyond Legal Design | 69 | |
| Chapter 5: Legal design and other designs | 71 | |
| Legal design vs... | 71 | |
| Legal design or contract design? | 74 | |
| Chapter 6: Legal design and sustainability | 77 | |
| Legal design and the United Nations 2030 Agenda | 77 | |
| Enhancing accessibility | 78 | |
| About clear communication as human right | 79 | |
| Legal design and neurodiversity, part one - designing for a neurodiverse audience | 80 | |
| Legal design and neurodiversity part two - when the legal designer is neurodivergent | 82 | |
| Redesigning governance towards transparency | 83 | |
| Chapter 7: Legal design and artificial intelligence | 89 | |
| The evolution of legal design with generative AI | 89 | |
| From design thinking to emerging thinking | 90 | |
| How about AI as final user? | 91 | |
| Thinking before building | 93 | |
| Ethical considerations and challenges | 95 | |
| Chapter 8: Legal design and dark patterns | 99 | |
| What is a dark pattern? | 99 | |
| Dark patterns in practice | 101 | |
| Why legal design is important for dark patterns (and potential related risks) | 102 | |
| Chapter 9: Legal design and proactive law | 105 | |
| What is proactive law? Evolutions and significance | 105 | |
| Benefits of proactive law | 106 | |
| Five main barriers to proactive law and potential pathways to success | 109 | |
| Legal design and proactive law | 112 | |
| Chapter 10: Legal design and gamification | 115 | |
| A quick intro to gamification | 115 | |
| Gamification in the legal field - strategies and applications | 116 | |
| Challenges and ethical considerations of gamification in the legal field | 120 | |
| A virtual legal experience | 121 | |
| Legal design and gamification | 122 | |
| Thoughtful perspective: Ashleigh Ruggles and Maclen Stanley | 125 | |
| Part III: From Theory to Practice | 129 | |
| Introduction to Part III: Law and Ikea Instructions | 131 | |
| Chapter 11: Setting the stage for our legal design project | 133 | |
| Choosing the format, part one - online, in person, or hybrid? | 133 | |
| Choosing the format, part two - hackathons, jams, and periodic sessions | 135 | |
| Choosing the format, part three - parallel, serial, or both? | 137 | |
| Preparing a legal design project | 138 | |
| Involving the right players and creating an inclusive environment | 139 | |
| Developing a preliminary checklist | 140 | |
| Creating common knowledge | 142 | |
| Chapter 12: The legal design toolbox | 145 | |
| The platforms | 145 | |
| Sticky pads, pins, markers, boards | 148 | |
| Most common visual tools | 150 | |
| Patterns libraries | 157 | |
| Tools for law firms | 157 | |
| Readability tests and software | 158 | |
| An always evolving scenario | 159 | |
| Chapter 13: 12 challenges of a legal design project (and tips to overcome them) | 163 | |
| Challenge 1: Is this thing valid? | 163 | |
| Challenge 2: Budget | 164 | |
| Challenge 3: Internal selling | 165 | |
| Challenge 4: Managing time constraints | 166 | |
| Challenge 5: Quantifying benefits – measuring what’s often hidden | 167 | |
| Challenge 6: Avoid deviating from the original project | 167 | |
| Challenge 7: The Tetris agenda - balancing competing priorities | 168 | |
| Challenge 8: Navigating interdisciplinary teamwork | 169 | |
| Challenge 9: Establishing a structured framework | 170 | |
| Challenge 10: Different clients, different organizations, different processes – adapting to varied needs | 171 | |
| Challenge 11: The smartest ones in the room | 171 | |
| Challenge 12: Modification and editability of legal design outputs | 172 | |
| Chapter 14: 12 tips for great legal design sessions | 175 | |
| Tip 1: Don’t let equity partners and general counsels run the show | 175 | |
| Tip 2: Manage interruptions wisely | 176 | |
| Tip 3: Be cautious with recording sessions | 177 | |
| Tip 4: Use of AI tools for minutes | 177 | |
| Tip 5: Assign homework duties | 178 | |
| Tip 6: Adopt forward, not backward thinking | 179 | |
| Tip 7: Rely on evangelists | 179 | |
| Tip 8: Maintain an informal approach | 180 | |
| Tip 9: Less words, more practice | 181 | |
| Tip 10: Celebrate small wins | 181 | |
| Tip 11: Manage cognitive load | 181 | |
| Tip 12: Defer judgment | 182 | |
| Chapter 15: The 12 most common mistakes in legal design (AKA the best lessons I’ve learned) | 185 | |
| Mistake 1: Thinking you know the user | 185 | |
| Mistake 2: Considering the contract out of its system | 186 | |
| Mistake 3: Raising excessive expectations | 187 | |
| Mistake 4: Expecting legal design to fix everything | 188 | |
| Mistake 5: Losing the initial enthusiasm | 188 | |
| Mistake 6: Treating documents as static artefacts | 190 | |
| Mistake 7: Assuming our documents are already good enough | 191 | |
| Mistake 8: Jumping directly to the solutions | 192 | |
| Mistake 9: Lack of interdisciplinary collaboration | 193 | |
| Mistake 10: Downplaying resistance to change within legal teams | 193 | |
| Mistake 11: Underestimating regulatory and ethical considerations | 195 | |
| Mistake 12: Treating legal design as a one-time effort | 195 | |
| Chapter 16: Practical applications of AI for legal design projects | 197 | |
| Choosing the right engine - a short guide to AI tools | 197 | |
| Building with the machine - prototyping in practice | 198 | |
| From drafting to conversating - specific uses of AI | 199 | |
| More tools, better questions | 201 | |
| Chapter 17: Leveraging on the learning experience | 203 | |
| Gathering feedback and listening for learning | 203 | |
| Maintaining momentum | 204 | |
| After the project is done - turning (more) ideas into action | 205 | |
| Thoughtful perspective: Sally Guyer | 207 | |
| Part IV: The Leonardo Framework© | 211 | |
| Introduction to Part IV: Towards a Common Ground | 213 | |
| Chapter 18: The Leonardo Framework© | 215 | |
| Some disclaimers | 215 | |
| How about three levels of legal design? | 216 | |
| Level 1: The base of the pyramid | 219 | |
| Level 2: The magic of legal design thinking | 221 | |
| Level 3: Metricizing the law | 223 | |
| Chapter 19: Level 1 of the Leonardo Framework© | 227 | |
| Preamble - always users first | 227 | |
| Step 1: Look.Read.Listen | 227 | |
| Step 2: Clarifying the language, part one - things to avoid | 228 | |
| Step 3: Clarifying the language, part two - things to do | 235 | |
| Step 4: A matter of how | 238 | |
| Step 5: Refining our typography | 240 | |
| Thinking in terms of information architecture | 244 | |
| Chapter 20: Level 2 of the Leonardo Framework© | 247 | |
| From Level 1 to Level 2 - from intervention to intention | 247 | |
| Step 1: What do we want to achieve? What impact do we want to have? | 248 | |
| Step 2: Empathize | 249 | |
| Step 3: Define | 252 | |
| Step 4: Ideate | 255 | |
| Step 5: Prototype | 256 | |
| Step 6: Test | 258 | |
| Step 7: Refining our work | 258 | |
| Chapter 21: Level 3 of the Leonardo Framework© | 261 | |
| From Level 2 to Level 3 | 261 | |
| Why we need to measure impact | 262 | |
| Working towards an impact analysis | 263 | |
| Reflections about scalability | 266 | |
| Delving into A/B testing | 268 | |
| The measure of maturity | 269 | |
| Three levels and Dante’s Paradise | 270 | |
| Thoughtful perspective: Matthew Butterick | 273 | |
| Chapter 22: Conclusion: Legal Design and the Ikigai - a pathway to holistic fulfilment | 279 | |
| About Globe Law and Business | 281 |
Marco Imperiale is the founder and managing director of Better Ipsum, a benefit corporation providing innovative services to law firms, institutions, and corporate legal departments.
Before starting Better Ipsum, Marco was a copyright/ entertainment lawyer and the head of Innovation at LCA, one of the major Italian law firms.
In his legal design journey, Marco has worked with law firms, institutions, and corporate companies in various industries, such as pharma, automotive, logistics, insurance, fintech, energy, apparel, and telecommunications.
He has lectured on legal design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (J-Term 2023 and 2024), spoken various times at the Legal Design Summit, the most important legal design event globally, and is currently part of the case studies team at the Legal Design Journal, the only academic journal dedicated to legal design.
Aside from legal design, Marco teaches AI for Business and Fashion Law at Polimoda, and is a Teaching Fellow for CopyrightX, the copyright course offered by Harvard Law School in conjunction with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. He is a mindfulness trainer, a long-time advocate of wellbeing in the legal profession, and serves as president of the UIA Committee for Wellbeing and Mental Health.
For more information about his work, visit www.marcoimperiale.net and www.betteripsum.net