Lawyer Forward

All this talk about the "new normal," as if there are cosmic forces leading us unwittingly along... no thanks.

In this episode, Mike shares a new tool for iterating and testing ideas for your firm: the Legal Innovation Canvas.

By asking the right questions of your ideas, you can build a habit of iteratively improving your firm as new challenges arise. Rather than being pushed around by things you can't control, the Legal Innovation Canvas helps you take control of your firm's future.

Episode Resources

• Connect with Mike Whelan
• https://www.lawyerforward.com/
• https://www.clio.com/resources/designing-your-law-firms-new-normal/
• How Best Buy's Business Model Transformation Saved It From Sure Failure: https://fourweekmba.com/best-buy-business-model/

Are these the most uncivil times that lawyers have experienced? As one historian points out, the pre-Civil War Congress had heartier conflicts than us and their spiral into conflict is enlightening. For lawyers trying to balance zeal and civility, we need to mindfully address the systems that move us to war.

Episode Resources

• Connect with Mike Whelan
• https://www.lawyerforward.com/
• The Field of Blood by Joanne Freeman: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374154776
• The Current State of Civility in the Legal Profession: https://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/2020/05/the-current-state-of-civility-in-the-legal-profession/#:~:text=On%20today's%20Lawyer%202%20Lawyer,the%20use%20of%20overly%20aggressive
• The Zeal Shortage: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=902288

Are these the most uncivil times that lawyers have experienced? As one historian points out, the pre-Civil War Congress had heartier conflicts than us and their spiral into conflict is enlightening. For lawyers trying to balance zeal and civility, we need to mindfully address the systems that move us to war.

Episode Resources

• Connect with Mike Whelan
• https://www.lawyerforward.com/
• The Field of Blood by Joanne Freeman: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374154776 
• The Current State of Civility in the Legal Profession: https://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/2020/05/the-current-state-of-civility-in-the-legal-profession/#:~:text=On%20today's%20Lawyer%202%20Lawyer,the%20use%20of%20overly%20aggressive
• The Zeal Shortage: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=902288

Imagine a space alien choosing a box of cereal from an array of dizzying options. If you do that, you'll have a pretty good idea of what it's like for most legal consumers to hire a lawyer. They don't see anything different.

In this episode, we explore what it means to be different and how you can use positioning and personality to really stand out.

Episode Resources

• Connect with Mike Whelan
• https://www.lawyerforward.com/
• Nobody's Victim: Fighting Psychos, Stalkers, Pervs, and Trolls: https://www.nobodys-victim.com
• Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd: https://www.amazon.com/Different-Escaping-Competitive-Youngme-Moon/dp/030746086X

Imagine a space alien choosing a box of cereal from an array of dizzying options. If you do that, you'll have a pretty good idea of what it's like for most legal consumers to hire a lawyer. They don't see anything different.

In this episode, we explore what it means to be different and how you can use positioning and personality to really stand out.

Episode Resources

• Connect with Mike Whelan
• https://www.lawyerforward.com/
• Nobody's Victim: Fighting Psychos, Stalkers, Pervs, and Trolls: https://www.nobodys-victim.com
• Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd: https://www.amazon.com/Different-Escaping-Competitive-Youngme-Moon/dp/030746086X

In the late 80s, police were dispatched to investigate why thousands of VHS cassettes were scattered on highways around Jackson, Mississippi. That started a series of events that threatened the most powerful people in town and ended a mom and pop business. Without margin, small businesses—including small law firms—can't survive.

Episode Resources

• Connect with Mike Whelan
• https://www.lawyerforward.com/
• The Cost of Law by Gillian Hadfield: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2333990
• Margin by Richard Swenson: http://www.richardswenson.com/margin

In the late 80s, police were dispatched to investigate why thousands of VHS cassettes were scattered on highways around Jackson, Mississippi. That started a series of events that threatened the most powerful people in town and ended a mom and pop business. Without margin, small businesses—including small law firms—can't survive.

Episode Resources

• Connect with Mike Whelan
• https://www.lawyerforward.com/
• The Cost of Law by Gillian Hadfield: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2333990 
• Margin by Richard Swenson: http://www.richardswenson.com/margin

On one side, 14 of America's largest companies; on the other, a scrappy small town attorney and the sister of an opioid addict.

This is the story of a fight between rural West Virginians and the drug distributors that profited from their suffering. At the center is an unfortunately dying breed: small town lawyers.

If we want to attract new lawyers to these rural legal deserts, it'll take a larger policy response than tax breaks and student loan relief. Do we have the stomach for what's really needed?

Episode Resources

• Connect with Mike Whelan
• https://www.lawyerforward.com/
• ABA's 2020 Profile of the Legal Profession: https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/news/2020/07/potlp2020.pdf
• Death in Mud Lick: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Death-in-Mud-Lick/Eric-Eyre/9781982105310

On one side, 14 of America's largest companies; on the other, a scrappy small town attorney and the sister of an opioid addict.

This is the story of a fight between rural West Virginians and the drug distributors that profited from their suffering. At the center is an unfortunately dying breed: small town lawyers.

If we want to attract new lawyers to these rural legal deserts, it'll take a larger policy response than tax breaks and student loan relief. Do we have the stomach for what's really needed?

Episode Resources

• Connect with Mike Whelan
• https://www.lawyerforward.com/
• ABA's 2020 Profile of the Legal Profession: https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/news/2020/07/potlp2020.pdf 
• Death in Mud Lick: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Death-in-Mud-Lick/Eric-Eyre/9781982105310 

TRIGGER WARNING: This episode shares details of a sexual assault case. Please be mindful of those stories' impact on you.

In 1984, Jennifer Thompson misidentified the man who'd sexually assaulted her. For Ronald Cotton, it meant a decade in prison for a crime he didn't commit. But the strangest part of the story occurred after the exoneration: he and Jennifer became supportive friends.

In this episode, we talk about the mental errors that break up relationships and lead to false convictions, as well as the two men whose research in this field couldn't keep them together.

Episode Resources

• Connect with Mike Whelan
• https://www.lawyerforward.com/
• Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption: https://www.pickingcottonbook.com
• The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed Our Minds https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Undoing_Project_A_Friendship_That_Ch/xpJHDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
• "Why Eyewitnesses Fail": https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5544328/