In Seclusion Greg Lambert

When David Lat, Managing Partner of Lateral Link, contracted COVID-19 back in March, he made the pandemic real and personal for many of us in the legal industry. Three months later, I have him as my last guest on In Seclusion and ask him what lessons we've learned through it all. He gave me three.


We've learned to work successfully on a remote basis. This is no small deal for the legal industry who stressed the need to be in the office.
Lawyers and legal professionals have learned how to use more technology tools in a more effective and efficient way. It turns out that lawyers can learn new tech when they are forced to.
We all have gained a great perspective of what's truly important to us in our work and in our personal lives.

It's been a challenging three months of working during a pandemic, an economic crisis, and a time of social upheaval. It's been a pleasure talking with over 70 professionals and having them share their experiences, insights, and predictions with us all. If you haven't caught all of the episodes, I suggest going through the list and picking out a few to binge. Stay safe, healthy, and sane everyone!

Remember, we may all be In Seclusion, but we're in this together.

Host: Greg Lambert (@glambert)
Producer: Janice Anderson
Artwork: Dean Lambert
Music: Jerry David DeCicca
Twitter: @InSeclusionPod




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Victoria Hudgins, Reporter at LegalTechNews, reports on the legal tech sector and noticed that some of the first cuts that major law firms made during the pandemic were related to their technology innovation teams. Lawyers and tech staff were subjected to layoffs, furloughs, and pay cuts almost immediately as firms feared a reduction in revenue and work. She wonders what that means for these legal innovation teams. Will firms take their foot off the gas on innovation? How long will law firms continue to invest in these teams? Will the resulting actions be that law firms will have to look externally for innovation once we get beyond the pandemic? Time will tell.

Remember, we may all be In Seclusion, but we’re in this together.

Host: Greg Lambert (@glambert)
Producer: Janice Anderson
Artwork: Dean Lambert
Music: Jerry David DeCicca
Twitter: @InSeclusionPod


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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/inseclusion/message

Jason Barnwell, Assistant General Counsel of Modern Legal at Microsoft, does not like it when his outside legal counsel comes to him with traditional offerings during a crisis. If there is ever a time to package legal services in a way that helps in-house attorneys manage their limited resources, that time is now. Don't ask the client to define what services you can provide them, come to the client with the knowledge you've learned from all your other clients' needs, and provide insights, and options on how to address current and potential issues. Bring options to the client. The options do not have to be perfect, or unassailable. But they start that conversation to find what the client needs, and how the firms can be creative in helping with that need. 

Remember, we may all be In Seclusion, but we’re in this together.

Host: Greg Lambert (@glambert)
Producer: Janice Anderson
Artwork: Dean Lambert
Music: Jerry David DeCicca
Twitter: @InSeclusionPod




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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/inseclusion/message

Patrick DiDomenico, the Chief Innovation Officer at Jackson Lewis, says that while Necessity may be the Mother of Invention, Crisis may be the Father of Innovation. And this year is definitely filled with crisis events. While the remote nature of work is a challenge, it has also been a bit of a blessing in disguise. The need to be responsive also enables us to be proactive, and that has helped pull teams together to be innovative and do some really great things. Sometimes the need to respond to a crisis can break the paralysis that plagues some law firms who are looking to be perfect before applying changes to existing processes.

Remember, we may all be In Seclusion, but we’re in this together.

Host: Greg Lambert (@glambert)
Producer: Janice Anderson
Artwork: Dean Lambert
Music: Jerry David DeCicca
Twitter: @InSeclusionPod






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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/inseclusion/message

Joshua Lenon, Lawyer in Residence at CLIO, works in a cloud-based environment where the idea is to operate consistently, regardless of physical location. And that’s exactly what they have done over the past three-plus months. For others in the legal field to follow this lead, he says that we need to invest more in technology for our staff, as well as shift more operations away from the physical office and more toward cloud systems. Having successful operations like that makes it a lot easier to continue remaining safe and productive remotely until it is safer for all of us to return to an office. 

Remember, we may all be In Seclusion, but we’re in this together.

Host: Greg Lambert (@glambert)
Producer: Janice Anderson
Artwork: Dean Lambert
Music: Jerry David DeCicca
Twitter: @InSeclusionPod


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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/inseclusion/message

Colin Levy, Legal Technology, and Legal Innovation Thought Leader says that there are a lot of people in the legal industry who are truly trying to innovate, but that innovation does not equal technology, and technology does not equal innovation. There’s a holistic approach that needs to be taken, especially in the middle of a crisis like we have now, and the processes as well as the technology need to be evaluated in order to truly create an innovative environment that is built to last.

Remember, we may all be In Seclusion, but we’re in this together.

Host: Greg Lambert (@glambert)
Producer: Janice Anderson
Artwork: Dean Lambert
Music: Jerry David DeCicca
Twitter: @InSeclusionPod


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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/inseclusion/message