Catching up on recent news and events:

• The Florida Bar is the first bar to require lawyers to complete three credit hours in approved technology programs. The new rule kicks in on Jan. 1 2017. Among the reactions: Bloomberg Law Big Law Business; LawSites (Robert Ambrogi);  ABA Journal;  MyCase Blog; FindLaw.

 

 

 

 

• Bloomberg Big Law Business: “Gender Pay Gap for Big Law Partners: 44 Percent,” by Stephanie Russell-Kraft. “Male partners in Big Law are still out-earning their female counterparts by 44 percent, according to the results of a survey [Oct. 12] by Major, Lindsey & Africa.”

She continues: “Of the 2,153 partners polled, men earned an average of $949,000 per year while women brought in $659,000. The differences in partner billing rates ($701 for men and $636 for women) and hours billed (1,703 for men and 1,632 for women) remained relatively small. But the results show women still lag behind significantly in originations, pulling in an average of $1,730,000 versus $2,590,000 for men.”

See also:
1) New York Times article: “Leading New York Law Firms Lag in Including Women and Minorities,” by Elizabeth Oldson. http://nyti.ms/2eT2uRA
2) New York City Bar:  “Diversity Benchmarking Report 2015“

 

• Mark Cohen writes about “Why U.S. Legal Regulation Needs a British Makeover,” on Forbes.com. Cohen discusses why the U.S. should adopt alternative business structures (ABS) to remove “long-standing regulations preventing non-lawyers from ownership, profit sharing, and other managerial functions in law firms.”

“Those restrictions made sense when legal delivery was solely about selling legal expertise. But they are now impediments to structural changes necessary to jump start new models at a time when legal delivery involves legal, IT, and process expertise.”

• Tech-Related Travel Opportunities: It’s not too late to catch these upcoming conferences in the next two weeks:

Oct. 27 & 28: Above The Law Academy for Private Practice. It’s not too late to head to Philadelphia. CodeX Fellow Gurinder “Gary” Sangha leads the “pre-conference” Thursday, which includes several CodeX regulars (including Jules Miller (Evolve Law). It includes a 4:30 p.m.  “Media Training and Storytelling; and at 5:30, the alt.Legal Innovation Showcase. Gangha also will present the keynote to kick off the Friday conference. More info: here.

 

Nov. 4:  Associate Professor Daniel Martin Katz will launch the first “Fin (Legal) Tech—A Conference About Law’s Future,” at Chicago-Kent College of Law-Illinois Institute of Technology. (Katz is an Affiliated Faculty at CodeX). Fly, train or walk to this conference—he’s taking us to the next level of the legal profession. After watching him present the Day 2 Keynote at ILTACON in August, I’m absolutely convinced that between Katz and James “Jim” Sandman‘s vision at May’s CodeX FutureLaw, (among others)—change is on the way. More info here.

PODCASTS
“Closing the Gap Between Law School and the Legal Industry,” (Katz).
“The Growth of Legal Tech Entrepreneurship” (Sangha)
“10 Ways to Accelerate the Adoption of Legal Tech,” (Sandman).

Monica Bay is a Fellow at CodeX and a freelance journalist and analyst. She is a columnist for Above The Law and is co-host of the podcast, Law Technology Now (with Robert Ambrogi). Email: mbay@codex.stanford.edu. Twitter: @Monica Bay

Cover image: Clipart.com