“There’s so much to be done internally that’s difficult because of that psychology.” Kate also appreciates (as do I) the historic path each firm has taken, and how it enables, and constrains, what the firm can do. For people within the firm to be resilient and embrace change when lawyers, according to several studies, are naturally the “least resilient people on the planet” means you have to make the institution itself resilient. Obviously, law firms are different from corporations, flatter and less hierarchical, which can be a great strength, but there are also many things law firms can learn from corporations.

It comes down to this: People need to participate in the change, become invested in doing things, trying small experiments and gaining adoption.

I ask what she thinks of the concept of an R&D budget for a law firm?

“However you can accomplish the result of having everyone not spend every hour doing the task at hand, I applaud.” She adds that Fenwick tends to create change through project experiments that start small, which allows for evolution and growth for successful experiments or smaller failure.  Again, Kate insists, whatever it takes, be that “signaling” permission with an R&D budget or giving permission to pursue projects not immediately directed at the task at hand, we need to think creatively about ways of accomplishing new and different things.

I raise my new least favorite word, “value.” (Least favorite because almost everyone who invokes it has no clue what they really mean, thinks the word has content when it actually does not, and if called on the carpet are inarticulate to the point of humiliation.) What does “value” mean in the eyes of clients?

Well, she says, if you think about ordinary consumers and perceived value, much has to do with expectations of what the cost would be. For many years, the lawyer was the access point to legal knowledge. Now clients have tons of choices and therefore have a stronger sense of whether they’ve gotten value. Pricing initiatives are just one way Fenwick is trying to deliver value. (For more on Fenwick’s pricing initiatives and the newly created role of “Product Manager,” watch this video of Kate on Bloomberg Law.)

I love the idea of “expectations,” and expect to write more about this. The same service can seem to a client to be exceptional or disappointing, based on ingoing expectations. A cautionary thought, to those of us who are tempted always to promise impeccability as a starting point.

My takeaway?

• I alluded above to “historic path dependency,” and you could argue that Fenwick & West, with its roots in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, is unusually sensitive to the role of technology in driving change in the workplace. This may be true—it should be true—but I have news for you: Listen up. The noted Canadian-American author William Gibson, who coined the word “cyberspace,” also said “The future is already here; it’s just unevenly distributed.” So if Fenwick is closer to the future than most of Big Law, pay attention.
• Second, in going back over my notes something jumped out at me that I hadn’t perceived when we were talking: Kate used a single word a lot, and in different contexts, and invested it with great meaning. The word?: “Institution.”This matters. It matters because law firms choose to be consumption and not investment engines (I have news for you, folks! It is your choice), and tend to focus on the present and the immediate past, and never the future. The word “institution” implies a strongly related concept, namely “stewardship.” Don’t we have an obligation to leave our institutions better than we found them?