Legal Commentary

Legal On Ramp: The On Ramp To The Future?

By Patrick J. Lamb

 I joined Legal On Ramp.  I know this isn't "call CNN and issue a press release" kind of stuff.  But it does afford me the opportunity to offer some thoughts on the future of how we provide services to our clients and how are clients are likely to evolve as consumers.

My good friend Jeff Carr, the General Counsel of FMC Technologies, once shared his vision of the future with me.  He envisioned a world in which access to content was free and universal.  There would be no real value in figuring out what the law is on a given topic.  Instead, lawyers would be paid for the places where they add unique value--counseling and advocacy, tactics and strategy.  I love that world--to use somewhat sexist saying, that world separates the men from the boys.

The future is here.  Well, it's certainly much closer than many imagine.  The premise of Legal On Ramp is that lawyers should want to share their work product, so that clients and potential clients can see that they know the basics, and then engage them to work on more difficult issues.  You've heard of Web 2.0.  Well, Web 2.0 + Legal Visionaries = Law 2.0.  And that, my friends, is the essence of Legal On Ramp.

I am sure that I am doing a terrible job of describing all of the real attributes and potential benefits of LOR.  Having been part of the enterprise for less than 24 hours as I write this, I hope I'll be forgiven for lacking the insights to share.  But the surface I've barely scratched is so exciting that I just had to write about it.

Full post as published by In Search of Perfect Client Service on July 12, 2008 (boomark / email).