John Flood's Random Academic Thoughts (RATs)

It seems to be the season of law firm/business surveys. We’re hearing a lot about New Law, pushback from clients, less for more and so on. Smith & Williamson, an accounting firm, have surveyed law firms about their future finance decisions. Law firms are facing increasing competition from other firms. This isn’t surprising as most […]

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The other day I was asked to write a paragraph about the future of the legal profession and here’s what I wrote: The legal profession of the 21st century has been described as having encountered its own Cambrian explosion. Rather than extinction the legal profession is facing rapid change as the result of increasing use […]

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Yesterday I had lunch with Joanna Goodman, a journalist who writes for the Guardian and the Law Society Gazette on matters technological, and we talked about the conservatism of law when it came to incorporating technology. This has led me to a thought experiment I’d like to try out here. First, a couple of assumptions: this […]

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Despite all the theories put forward, the forensic evidence adduced, the conspiracies mounted, Jack the Ripper wasn’t caught and so didn’t meet his just deserts. It keeps retired coppers and others in business however. The fate of Big Law is similar. Today an article in the Financial Times (accessible here) proudly proclaimed “dominant New York […]

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Great conference coming up courtesy of University of St Gallen, Switzerland, on October 1, 2015. The conference itself is being held at Haus zum Rüden in Zurich. Interesting line up of speakers (including me). Here they are:   Details of who’s who here: Booking details and registration are here in English and here in German. […]

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