The Agile Lawyer - by Katharina Bisset (Paperback)

About the Book

This book describes how Agile methods can be implemented in the attorney-client relationship, focusing on Scrum and Kanban, and the accompanying business model resulting in an Agile Legal Services Agreement.

Book Synopsis

Agile principles and methods have found a home in many environments far from their origins in software development, but the very traditional world of attorneys has remained generally free of their influence. Companies can improve transparency, communication and collaboration in the workplace, bringing flexibility and adaptability to their working methods. Whilst literature for Agile business models and contracts in software development is plentiful, there are no specific examples of Agile being applied to the legal profession.

This book describes how Agile methods can be implemented in the attorney-client relationship, focusing on Scrum and Kanban, and the accompanying business model resulting in an Agile Legal Services Agreement. The agreement sets forth the framework for an Agile collaboration and business model, working within law firms or legal departments. With this model in place, lawyers can benefit from an Agile mindset in their internal processes and in their interactions with clients.

Agile was first developed for software development, but the principles and methods soon spread to other professions. Attorneys, a profession that has always been traditional, could benefit from the flexibility and adaptability of Agile principles. In addition to that, implementing Agile principles can also improve transparency, communication, and collaboration.

Legal literature has started to address project management with the rise of Legal Tech, but only a select few thematize Agile principles in general without going into detail how these can be applied in a law firm. Whilst literature for Agile business models and contracts in software development has increased, there is no literature where Agile business models are applied to the legal profession.

This thesis describes how Agile methods can be implemented in the attorney-client relationship, focusing on Scrum and Kanban, and the accompanying business model resulting in an Agile Legal Services Agreement. The agreement sets forth the framework for the Agile collaboration and business model.

Consequently, hypotheses were developed, identifying which principles and methods can be implemented and to what extent. The practical applications of these hypotheses were then placed within a legal framework defining the communication, collaboration, and business model. The hypotheses and the Agile Legal Services Agreement were presented to a focus group of eleven, consisting of attorneys, clients, legal innovators, and project managers, and assessed on their applicability and the possibility to implement them in a law firm.

The feedback from the focus group was predominantly positive and the results of the discussion showed that the methods, especially Kanban, can be implemented well with open-minded attorneys and clients, even in situations where it is not possible to negotiate the business model. The feedback was evaluated based on previous empirical knowledge, summarised, and then transferred into the Agile Legal Service Agreement, allowing the methods and the business model to be easily implemented. As a further step, the area of research of this thesis can be expanded into Agile working within law firms or within legal departments.