The Innovation Agenda: Are Lawyers Stuck in GM's Tire Tracks?

The following article is the first of three parts arising from discussions at the Leading Legal Innovation conference in December sponsored by the Southern California Innovation Project at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law. [Click here for Part One; Click here for Part Two; Click here for Part Three.]

In mid-December, Professor Stephen Burbank of the University of Pennsylvania Law School addressed a group gathered in San Diego, describing two recent New York Times columns by Thomas Friedman that focused on the problems facing the Big Three automakers. In “How to Fix a Flat” Friedman lashed out at U.S. car makers for their resistance to innovation. In “ While Detroit Slept” Friedman argued that these companies would soon be overtaken by new business models. “The most important rule of business in today’s integrated and digitized global market, where knowledge and innovation tools are so widely distributed, [is] this: Whatever can be done, will be done,” Friedman wrote. “The only question is will it be done by you or to you.”