Cally Spooner presented a reading from her novel in progress, interspersed with some unwritten thoughts for 2017, on states
of rehearsal, Galileo's telescope,
out -
of - work speech writers, sweat, shame,
structured reality, fake news, false tears and
outsourcing
(i) BMO reducing its roster
of firms from about 800 to 200 with further reductions planned; (ii) the clients
of seven sister firms hiring me to help them get control over their legal spend and forge stronger and more value based relationships with their firms; (iii) the many small and mid-sized businesses who hire accountants to do all
of their tax and
structuring work because it is cheaper than dealing with lawyers; (iv) firms hiring me to help them figure
out how to budget, set and meet client expectations without losing money; (v) «clients» who never become clients at all as they do their own legal work based on precedents that friends share with them; (vi) the various forms
of outsourcing that are now prevalent (from offices in India to Tory's office in Halifax); (vii) clients hiring me to figure
out how to increase internal capacity without increasing headcount in order to reduce external spend; (viii) the success
of firms like Conduit, SkyLaw and Cognition (to name a few) who are taking new approaches to «big» and «medium law» work; (ix) the introduction
of full time project managers in many firms; and (x) the number
of lawyers throughout the profession who regularly don't docket chunks
of their time in order to avoid unpleasant fee conversations with their clients.