The Absurd Focus on AI (and why I think everyone has it wrong)
Launching non-AI initiatives, when everyone is so focused on AI
Over the past few weeks, I've been getting back to having calls with people, and that's been great.
It's extremely energizing for me to talk to like-minded people who are doing interesting things or trying to innovate in the legal profession.
I’ve also spoken with people innovating at law schools and firms (all of whom are trying to move the industry forward) as well as many other coaches.
I can't get over this overwhelming feeling that nothing has changed in the last five years.
Of course, in some ways, everything has changed. The world around us is completely different (whether you’re thinking about the political climate, the prevalence of AI, and all sorts of local issues. I don’t recall smoke-filled summer days being a thing 5 years ago!).
We live in a completely different world.
Yet, as I reflect on five-plus years of running 4L Academy and really thinking about training both at our firm and at my various ventures, it feels like so little progress has been made. And that is is absolutely astonishing to me!
To be clear, lots of people are doing great work, but at a macro level, so little has changed.
One thing I find so bizarre, although we're seeing it outside the legal industry too, is that everyone is so focused on AI and almost no one is thinking about the basics.
I've always been one to zig when everyone else is zagging. That's probably my autistic nature, but I can't stop thinking about this:
It doesn't make sense.
I think about people management skills, which the legal industry has never taken seriously despite the enormous implications for both mental health and profitability.
Yet so many firms are focused on AI without knowing how to apply it. They do not know what they are doing, how to get people to change, or how to understand people.
It all comes back to people at the end of the day.
To be clear, you could argue that AI will reduce the number of people firms need and that they should not be investing as heavily in them.
Some very small companies with only five employees will indeed be worth a billion dollars.
Do I believe the nature of law firms will change? Yeah, but it's not happening overnight.
At the end of the day, you still need people.
You still need to think about AI, but it’s strange to me that, as I speak with more firms, I keep seeing the same thing: they have significant needs on the people side, whether in training, coaching, or teaching basic skills.
Leadership is saying, "Focus on AI, focus on AI, focus on AI." They're doing it in such a bizarre and confusing (or dare I say, illogical) way.
I say that as someone who literally runs a law firm where we're thinking about and obviously implementing tons of AI-related things, but it all still comes back to people.
How does this fit into their workflows?
How do you get buy-in?
How do you train people to use these tools well?
How do people at your firm think and act?
It's always been about people, and it still is.
I’m toying with a couple of initiatives right now, some within the legal industry and others outside it.
In terms of the legal industry, I can’t shake my belief that there is a need, although maybe I’m wrong, for associates (mainly mid-level and senior associates, but also junior partners) to have someone literally teaching them how to do all the things they’re supposed to magically figure out and that their firms, at least for now, aren’t formally investing in.
My gut is it's a podcast.
It's free. It's a way to take everything I've learned, everything I've done, and share it with people at scale, but part of me wonders: will anyone care?
Do people want to get better at this? I think they do, but I don't think waiting for firms is the answer.
I've seen how slowly most firms move, so my thought is, why not go straight to the consumer and literally make it free?
For example, having a resource that can really help a mid-level associate who's new to managing people and new to this role of having to execute on more complicated tasks while overseeing juniors.
For the senior associates whose roles look quite different and might be thinking about partnership, they also need to juggle the mid-levels, the juniors, and the people above them, and all of this. Again, there's nothing really out there for them that I've seen at scale.
Of course, for junior partners, it's a whole different ball game.
Suddenly, you're supposed to be bringing in business and doing all these things and overseeing larger teams and trying to figure out how to handle these scaling things that you're a part of, not to mention all the client management stuff that is never properly taught at all.
It is sort of funny to me how, despite large firms having these large professional development departments, none of them are really teaching these skills, and the lawyers certainly aren't either.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe no one wants this. I really am not sure, but if any of this resonates, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.
I know, certainly from what I've seen from the people we've worked with, whether it's my coaching externally, my work at Renno & Co, or really quite frankly anywhere else, there is a glaring need for this, but there is this funny disconnect in the legal profession between what is needed and what happens.
That is, I think, at the core of so many challenges in this profession.