Times New Roman, Coffee and Ditching Reason

• Author: Karen Dyck
• Date: January 21, 2015

One of my favourite things about being a lawyer is that legal work provides unending opportunities for problem solving.

As a youngster, I loved math best when we were focused on the solving word problems, and when algebra was introduced, I couldn’t get enough of it. Fast-forwarding to today…my legal practice consists primarily of hiring myself out to identify and analyze problems and propose a range of solutions.

I still love problem solving. That’s why two recent blog posts from SeyfarthLean Consulting CEO, Ken Grady caught my eye, both on this subject.

In The Arts of Coffee and Law, Grady writes about the bespoke approach to preparing a cup of coffee (the Jony Ive approach) and compares it to the way that legal services have traditionally been delivered. He notes that as there are many different ways to prepare and deliver a cup of coffee, with the key variables being people (i.e. coffee drinkers), their circumstances, their budgets, and their needs, so too there are many different ways to prepare and deliver legal services.

He concludes:

“There are many things lawyers do that we can’t do with technology right now and I’m not claiming I can get all of those things down to processes lasting a few seconds. But, we should not lose sight of the fact that there are many things lawyers are doing that computers could do in a fraction of the time and with consistently high quality.

We don’t all get Jony Ive cups of coffee because of the time and labor (expense) involved. But if you could get that Jony Ive cup of coffee in the same time it takes to get coffee from our local coffee shop, or even to make coffee with our office coffee machine, and if the cost was the same or less, wouldn’t you go for the cup of Ive joe?”

Reading this as I drink my morning coffee, the comparison resonates. It’s not a new idea but it is something that I know many lawyers continue to struggle with.

Grady wrote another post suggesting lawyers need to start taking a Jony Ive approach to the delivery of legal services, using design thinking to better meet the needs of clients. In Time for Lawyers to Think Like Ive, he explains:

“As lawyers, we can fight science and stick with 12 point, Times New Roman, single-spaced documents and try to force the world to conform. Or, we can accept how humans work and that visually engaging and stimulating materials will capture our clients. Our task is to...