The annual Big Ideas issue of Law Practice Magazine is officially a “big deal.” Some of you will recall that I spent much time last year promoting the 2013 Big Ideas issue of Law Practice Magazine. (I served as a co-guest editor.) I’m just as enthusiastic about 2014 Big Ideas issue of Law Practice Magazine. 
If you aren’t a member of the ABA Law Practice Division, you can read the magazine articles for free online or use the LP Mag app to download the mobile edition to your mobile device for only $4.99.
There’s a wealth of information contained in the Law Practice Magazine July/August 2014 issue. You will want to read more than just the few articles I have featured below. My apologies to the omitted authors.
“The 21st Century T-Shaped Lawyer” by R. Amani Smathers will introduce many of you to an entirely new concept. This is a powerful article. Many will not be comfortable with this outline of the skill set for future lawyers. I will force you to read the article to find the definition of a T-shaped lawyer, but let me dangle a couple of quotes from the article as bait to make sure you click.
“According to IBM, T-shaped professionals are valuable because they are empathetic, making them great at teamwork and collaboration, and creative problem solvers…
“The call for T-shaped lawyers is a refinement of a call for hybrid or multidisciplinary professionals.”
And being T-shaped even sounds like more fun.
The great (dare I say “legendary”?) Gerry Riskin advises courage and skill as we chart our courses through “Icebergs and Sea Monsters in Treacherous Legal Seas.” Join the captain of the fine ship the Law Practice of Tomorrow for some ideas about successfully piloting these seas. This is such a readable piece of work that you may finally have the courage to pass this one along to that partner that really needs to read it.
In “Finding Relief for Password Problems in the Cloud,” Tom Mighell gives you all of the information you need to take care of the problem of secure password management that you know needs to be addressed—today.
My column on Practice Management Advice has a title that sounds a bit pedestrian next to tales of sea monsters and reshaping lawyers to a T, but at least it is self-explanatory. “IT Governance: A Critical Issue for Law Firms” reflects a truism in today’s law office operations environment. I hope you will find my comments useful on how to formalize and improve this process.
So you have a lot of big ideas to process this month. Thanks to Law Practice Magazine for pulling them all together in a nice package.