The Future of Legal Services from the Buyers' Viewpoint

On Friday, October 4, 2013, I presented a TED-style talk at the 2013 Futures Conference presented by the College of Law Practice Management and Chicago-Kent School of Law.  As a Fellow of CoLPM, I treasure these annual meetings with other veterans of legal practice, management, marketing and technology.  

This year, I was invited to speak on the topic of this blog—specifically about the global megatrends and other forces that will change global society and business over the next 15-20 years. These trends and forces will impact every market and industry the legal services industry serves.  

I’ve blogged briefly about these trends before and about the December 2012 report Global Trends 2030 published by the National Intelligence Council.  This speech was a chance for me to explore these issues more deeply and share my thoughts with colleagues.  

After my speech, the conference’s 120 attendees divided into roundtables and made some projections about the markets, legal needs and buyers of a dozen industries that law firms, legal process outsourcing companies, and other legal vendors serve.  

Then we reconvened and debriefed about several industries the groups had considered.  It was an enlightening and entertaining session, although you’d have had to be present to appreciate how much we enjoyed ourselves. 

This type of conference format—1) keynote, 2) TED talks, 3) roundtable breakouts, and 4) plenary debriefs proved to be a successful model for other gatherings that smart people attend who want to tap the experience and knowledge of everyone present. 

You can find a .pdf version of the full speech text and slides here.  A link to a video recording of my TED talk (without the slides) can be found here (speech starts 6:00 minutes into the video).  I can’t guarantee how long the video link will be live. 

Please feel free to share this speech with others or repurpose the content in any ways that benefit you.  You also have my permission to deliver the speech yourself to other audiences.  I’ll even send you the actual PowerPoint slide deck if you like.