New book showcases design thinking applied to legal practice
A new book from the American Bar Association, “Design Your Law Practice: Using Design Thinking to Get Next Level Results,” is a resource to learn design thinking and apply it in legal practice. The book features practical use cases and tools so that readers can immediately take their learnings off the page and into action.
“Design Your Law Practice” is a one-stop resource to learn the basics of design thinking, gain insight into how design thinking principles have been successfully applied in the legal services sectors and equip the reader to immediately apply different design thinking approaches to gain tangible improvements and increased lawyer and client happiness. The book introduces each of the key design thinking steps, with expert contributors demonstrating how each step can be adapted to address challenges faced by lawyers, law firms and our justice systems. “Design Your Law Practice” also provides real, practical case studies of how design thinking has been successfully used in a range of law firm and legal services contexts. With action-oriented summaries and downloadable design tools this resource will enable you to directly apply the principles to your practice
About the editors:
• Jessica Bednarz is the director of legal services and the profession at the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS). In this role, she is responsible for overseeing IAALS’ work in the delivery of legal services and the legal profession. Prior to working at IAALS, Bednarz was the associate director of innovation and the Justice Entrepreneurs Project (JEP) for the Chicago Bar Foundation. The JEP helps lawyers launch socially conscious and innovative law practices targeting the underserved middle market. Earlier in her career, Bednarz specialized in family law, both as a solo practitioner and as an associate at O’Connor Family Law PC. A graduate of Indiana University and DePaul University College of Law, she resides in Denver, Colorado.
• Catherine Sanders Reach is director of the Center for Practice Management at the North Carolina Bar Association, providing practice technology and management assistance to lawyers and legal professionals. Formerly she directed the Chicago Bar Association’s Law Practice Management and Technology and the American Bar Association’s Legal Technology Resource Center. She has a master’s degree in Library and Information Studies from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, and in 2011 was selected to be one of the inaugural Fastcase 50, celebrating 50 innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders in the field of law. In 2013 Reach became a fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and in 2015 was selected to be part of the ABA LTRC Women of Legal Tech. She served for many years on the board of the ABA TECHSHOW.
• Juda Strawczynski is a lawyer, frequent speaker and writer on legal services regulation and legal practice. He is the CEO and registrar of the College of Patent Agents & Trademark Agents, the independent public interest regulator of patent agents and trademark agents in Canada. He was previously the director of practicePRO, LAWPRO’s claims prevention and risk management initiative. Before joining LAWPRO, Strawczynski was a policy counsel at the Law Society of Ontario, where he advised on key issues facing the legal profession, including access to justice, professional regulation and consumer protection issues. Strawczynski previously practiced at two litigation boutique law firms, served as volunteer president of Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights, a fellow at Physicians for Human Rights, a law clerk at the federal court, and a director of the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. Strawczynski has a B.A. from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and a law degree from the University of Toronto.
“Design Your Law Practice: Using Design Thinking to Get Next Level Results” is available as a softcover for $79.95. To place an order, visit www.americanbar.org/products/inv/book/429020101.
