Consistent with the current theme of many newly enlightened lawyers–that substantial change in the legal profession is inevitable and perhaps even imminent–I have sensed recently among my clients and audiences an impatience with theory and ideas. It is time, I am told, to take action. Move aside, theoreticians everywhere, while action-oriented lawyers now take the helm. However, when the legal dynamos do indeed step forward, they often find that they lack tools to help them make progress. They may have the will to effect change and may even be decisive and focused, but they do not have a clear framework within which to plan and act. My purpose here is to plug this gap, by providing lawyers with some new techniques, beginning with a tool to help them analyze the legal market and the work that falls within it.
They are not intended to be intricate and detailed models of reality that will satisfy the purist or the scholar. Rather, they are simplifications of our complex world. They are modest techniques, akin to those used by management consultants, to help lawyers understand and plan.
