Gain knowledge, strategies, and practical tools you will need to successfully meet the challenges and opportunities facing the legal industry.
This program was formerly called Leading the Law Firm of the Future. It has been expanded to include all legal organizations and departments to take advantage of the broader exchange of ideas and perspectives. Senior law firm leaders, general counsels, senior legal professionals are encouraged to apply.
The global events of the last few years have amplified the trends – globalization, digital transformation, and generational change – that were already impacting the legal services market and will continue to shape the competitive environment in which legal organizations and departments operate in the future. Legal leaders and professionals must develop a sophisticated strategy as they seek to build resilient organizations that can change, while preserving core strengths.
The Future of Legal will provide participants the knowledge and practical tools they will need to build an organization that can adapt in the face of today’s challenges and achieve continued success tomorrow.
Through a series of highly interactive case studies, lectures, discussions, simulations, and exercises led by world-class experts from Harvard Law School, Harvard Business School, and other leading institutions around the world, the program will provide participants with frameworks to navigate the interrelated drivers impacting the rapidly changing legal profession and industry. The 2024 program will have a special focus on the impact of AI.
The Future of Legal is purposefully designed for senior law firm leaders, general counsels, senior legal professionals to encourage discussion and share ideas across roles. Building on and expanding participants’ foundational knowledge, this program will provide new perspectives on the challenges they face while also giving them the opportunity to discuss and practice what they have learned. Participants will connect with peers from around the world to share experiences and potential solutions – and return to their roles with renewed energy to ready their firm for the future.
About The Future of Legal program
PROGRAM GOALS
The Future of Legal will prepare participants to navigate today’s rapidly changing world. Participants will leave the program equipped to:
Acknowledge uncertainty and balance competing perspectives—and even agendas—while still pushing a firm forward.
Solve problems more effectively by developing integrated solutions that draw on more than one area of expertise and incorporate several different perspectives simultaneously.
Understand and address the key factors impacting your organization’s future success, including generative AI.
Create and demonstrate value for clients and stakeholders.
Build a dynamic and resilient firm by understanding their stakeholders, including their people, future talent, and clients.
CURRICULUM
Using real case studies on law firms and other professional services firms, engaging discussions, and interaction with peers, participants will work through possible approaches and solutions to the challenges participants, their firm, and their clients face right now. The Future of Legal will cover a wide range of topics including but not limited to:
Impact of AI on the Legal Industry
The Future of Work
Sustainability, Stakeholders, and Social Justice
Digital Transformation
Developing Culture, Structure, and Systems
Multi-disciplinary Teams
Wellness for Lawyers and Legal Professionals
Meaning, Purpose, and Work
PARTICIPANTS
The Future of Legal is for senior law firm leaders, general counsels, senior legal professionals (such as those in Legal Operations, Technology, or other C-Suite roles), or those in a role that has influence over the strategy of the organization. Participants will typically have 20+ years of experience and strong foundational understanding of the principles of strategy and leadership.
FACULTY
Our core faculty are members of Harvard faculty – distinguished academicians, educators, researchers, authors, and practitioners in their respective fields. Representing various disciplines, they are close to practice through relationships with law firm leaders and General Counsel and through personal involvement as consultants for top firms around the world.