The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/11430
that doesn’t lead to sustainability in an intended way. It’s very different in the U.K. where firm leaders consider themselves custodians of an institution that existed long before they joined and will remain around long after they’re gone. That makes them more willing to make investments they know will bear fruit farther down the road. Such forward thinking is at the heart of sustainability. Naturally, in the corporate model there’s a tension — corporations are always focused on the last quarter, always having to report to Wall Street, always worrying about shareholders and stock value. Those concerns can be as limiting as partners focused on taking profits out of the business at the end of each year. On the other hand, major corporations like General Electric tend to be around a long time, so hopefully law firms in the corporate model will take that same kind of long-term view of investments and actions to help ensure they’ll be around in 2020 — or even 3020! If I may, Preston, I’d like to wrap up with a personal question to you. You have three daughters who would graduate from law school around the year 2020 if they chose to pursue the legal profession. If they are looking to become lawyers, what advice would you offer? Preston: I’m bullish on the profession, so if one or more of my daughters wants to practice law I would encourage her — or them —– to do so. And I would suggest she consider two things that were perhaps not as important to graduates in previous decades. First, have a global mindset. One of the key challenges of 2020 and beyond will be how to integrate in a global economy when many of the key players won’t have a local rule of law nearly as sophisticated as that in Europe and the U.S. How will companies make investments and how will businesses conduct transactions across the globe with a disparate set of laws, regulations, cultural ethos and the like? Attorneys who understand the global concept and can help them navigate those challenges will do very, very well. Second, be entrepreneurial. Marketing your personal brand and your personal portfolio is more important than attaching to the right employer coming out of school. I believe that in 2020, talented people will be able to thrive in almost any environment. So focus on personal development and be flexible in executing and leveraging your talents in whatever environment best suits you and best suits your clients. Then you’re on your way! Timely advice for any of us in the workforce, Preston, now and in the future. To you, Sally and Darryl, many thanks for sharing your time, expertise, insights, opinions — and your individual perspectives. I’m sure this information will be very valuable to our ILTA readership. Maybe we can touch base again in 2020 to see if our predictions came to pass. ILTA PRACTICES In The Next Decade? Our Software & Quality Experts Can Show You How! Software Specialists Want To Thrive • Quality Assurance • Deployment Readiness TM • Software Engineering • Application Development • Software Testing • Staffi ng MICROSOFT® SHAREPOINT® 2010 SERVICES • Scalability Testing • Performance Testing • KM/Enterprise Search with MS-FAST Talented People. Raising the Bar.TM info@olenick.com | olenick.com 24 www.iltanet.org Peer to Peer Olenick_ILTA June_FINAL.indd 1 4/29/10 11:15:48 AM