Our Events
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FutureFirm 1.0
April 17-19, 2009 Indiana University Maurer School of Law
211 S. Indiana Avenue
Bloomington, IN 47405The large U.S. law firm is under tremendous pressure from clients, associates, and the competition for--and sometimes among--partners. These pressures are exacerbated by a business model that has remained essentially unchanged for nearly 100 years. Is it possible for large corporate firms to thrive without rethinking their business model? The organizers of FutureFirm want to find out. FutureFirm is a game of strategy, skill, and endurance. The goal of the game is to craft a new law firm business model that is likely to survive and thrive 20 years into the future. The event includes ten teams of four players each, representing in-house lawyers/general counsel, law firm partners and managers, or associates/law students. Winners will be named by a large Judging Panel conprised of law firm partners, in-house lawyers, academics, a legal malpractice insurers, a Gen Y lawyer, and a law firm consultant. Complete game rules are for the event are set forth in the organizing memo. The competition is based on a fact pattern for the fictional firm, Marbury & Madison, LLP.
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2nd Annual Working Group Forum
Friday, October 17, 2008 Chicago Wyndham Hotel
633 North St. Clair Ave.
Chicago, IL 60611The theme of this forum was "The Recruitment, Development, and Retention of Human Capital." Our program included three subparts: A Re-Examination of the Cravath System; Tapping into the Global Market for Human Capital; and the Recruitment and Retention of Minority Lawyers. Academic researcher presented recent empirical findings on each topic, and practitioner and law firm administrators initiated a wide range discussion of related trends and issues affecting their firms and the legal services industry. Special guests at this year's annual meeting included Jeffrey Lehman, founding dean and chancellor of the Peking University School of Transnational Law, and Professor Robert Kelley a prolific researcher and author on knowledge worker productivity and a professor at the Tepper Business School at Carnegie Mellon University.
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1st Annual Working Group Forum
Friday, October 12, 2007 American Bar Foundation
750 North Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, IL 60611This forum consisted of presentations by Working Group Members to practicing lawyers and administrators who are affiliated with our Strategic Partners. The presentations covered a wide range of empirical research that is directly relevant to the growing corporate law sector, including patterns of geographic expansion, lateral movement between firms, and recruitment and attrition among large U.S. law firms. The purpose of the event is to facilitate practitioner-researcher dialogue in which Strategic Partners get early access to cutting-edge research, and Working Group Members benefit from the feedback and perspective of practicing lawyers.
The LFWG annual practitioner-researcher forums are an integral part of improving the quality, accuracy, and relevance of Working Group research. If your firm is interested in participating in a subsequent event during the 2009 calendar year, please contact:
William D. Henderson
Director, Law Firms Working Group
Indiana University School of Law—Bloomington
211 S. Indiana Ave.
Bloomington, IN 47405
Ph. 812-856-1788
wihender@indiana.edu