The Bad News: Being Relevant Today Is Not Enough

• Author: Adam Newhouse
• Pages: 77-83

77

CHAPTER 9

The Bad News: Being

Relevant Today Is

NotEnough

There may have been a time when once you got good at something,

maybe “made a partner,” you could live off that for the rest of your

career. If those times ever existed, they’re gone now. The minute you

start thinking you know how things work, you’re dead.201

—David Maister

We need to regain the trust and confidence of the business community

before we become totally obsolete and irrelevant to the needs of busi-

ness. To do so, we must develop a new story of the profession—a story

commensurate with the demands of the modern digital age. Thinking

like a lawyer alone will not get us there. Nor will we create such a story

merely by fixing problems that came into light during the Great Reces-

sion. While learning from the past is important, in the digital age we

need to learn also from the future.

Lawyers Reinventing Themselves—Rethinking

the Cravath Model

Innovation is the heart of every exceptional business. Innovation

continually poses the question: What is standing in the way of my

customer getting what he wants from my business?202

—Michael E. Gerber

Since the Great Recession, law firms have been reassessing the viabil-

ity of whatever remains of the once sacrosanct pyramid model of

201. Maister, Managing the Professional Service Firm (cited in note 99) at 147.

202. Gerber (cited in note 128) at 121.

new55202_09_ch09_077-084.indd 77 7/8/16 12:52 PM