I spoke with Jordan Furlong, an Ottawa-based lawyer, writer, and legal industry analyst, who is a partner with Edge International Consulting. Jordan is also the author of Evolutionary Road: A Strategic Guide to Your Law Firm’s Future, an e-book published by Attorney at Work.
We discussed his background and the focus of his work at Edge, as well as what inspired him to write Evolutionary Road. He shared his thoughts on the distinction between sustaining innovation vs. disruptive technology, and the impact of each on the legal market. “Disruptive technology will open new doors for us,” he predicts.
Furlong cautions that “This is not a period of incremental adjustment; it is a period of significant change.” He suggests that law firm leaders engage in two exercises to help their management teams consider key steps to take to accelerate their progress:
- Imagine that you are starting a law firm from scratch – how would you design it knowing that you have none of the constraints of the traditional paradigm?
- If your largest competitor or rival hired you away from your firm with the mission of destroying your former employer, what steps would you take?
He concludes that “Firms must recognize that the way in which they have done business in the past is not the way they will do business n the future.”
Listen to our interview below:
