Tamara Pow received a Women of Influence 2017 award from the Silicon Valley Business Journal last week and Rob and Sonya were fortunate enough to join this accomplished legal practitioner and Just Resolve Arbiter in this celebration. Ms. Pow has a unique mix of business, tax, and real estate legal experience. She is a licensed attorney and real estate broker with

Even though it may feel like a steep uphill climb for in-house counsel to force law firms to innovate, there are things that in-house counsel can do to encourage change. In the prior article in this series, I asked “Why won't in-house counsel force their law firms to innovate?” and the most common answer was that “there is very little we

Picture this: ten friends slogging their way up Mt. Kilimanjaro – each one carefully copying the foot placements of the person in front of him. Now add in extreme weather, sleep deprivation and the lurking possibility of injury. About a month ago, that was my reality. The air was thin, but the penchant for adventure was dense as ever. As my

As a follow-up to my recent article “Why Won’t Law Firms Innovate?,” where the answer was in part that their in-house counsel won’t force them to, I’ve had the chance to speak with several other in-house counsel and I asked them bluntly,  “Why won’t you force your outside law firms to innovate?” The responses were varied, and even though the

Most law firms still use an “opportunity cost” model to charge by the hour, regardless of outcome and how much is at stake. The reason law firms don’t change the way they are doing business is this simple - law firms won’t change because clients don’t make them. Law firms are waiting for clients to insist on change before they