As I’ve mentioned, I’ll be teaching the core/required
course, "Strategic Technology & Innovation" at SUNY/Stony
Brook’s MBA
program for law firm leaders. The program
starts the last week of April—in just a few weeks—but
my course doesn’t start until late August.
The
course will be presented from a strategic as opposed to
an operational or technical perspective, with an emphasis
on how technology can support the fundamental activities
sophisticated law firms engage in, both: (a) to make
the work the firm must perform more efficient, productive,
and cost-effective; and (b) to provide a competitive
distinction for the firm in the eyes of its attorneys,
its clients, and other pertinent audiences (such as potential
clients and recruits).
The course proceeds from the philosophy that technology
is essentially a tool, albeit a complex one, and is aimed
at law firm executives outside the IT department itself. The
students are expected to be predominantly in positions
such as Executive Director, Chief Operating Officer,
Chief Financial Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, etc.—and
are not expected
to be managing partners or lawyer/members of the executive
committee of their firm.
I’m in the process of developing a syllabus for the
course, and also fleshing out its actual content. So
far, the topics I plan to address include:
- A brief overview of the history of IT in law firms,
and the current state of the art: extranets,
"deal rooms," 24/7 connectivity, security, and internal
collaborative tools. - "Client-facing" systems including CRM.
- Knowledge Management: (a) approaches, techniques,
why and how KM is an essential strategic resource and
capability for a law firm, as well as (b) why KM is an
immense cultural challenge. - Business intelligence, competitive intelligence,
and profitability analysis: staffing, billing,
and project management issues. - Leadership and management issues for CIO’s and other
senior IT personnel: justifying costs, translating
IT-speak into lawyer-speak, "getting a seat at the table,"
managing expectations, etc. And
lastly - The Future: automated document production,
intelligent search; off-shoring; blogs, wikis, and
RSS.
Here’s my request: To all CIO’s and
others with opinions about these issues, please contact
me with suggestions for ways to approach this material,
suggestions for entirely different/other topics to cover,
reading material for the syllabus, and whatever horror
stories, revealing anecdotes, or seat-of-the-pants
guidance you’re in a position to give.
I thank you in advance for your thoughts.
