Dennis Kennedy

From Law.com's Corporate Counsel

Cisco's GC Thinks Small

Cisco's General Counsel, Mark Chandler, has a well-deserved reputation as a thought-leader in the developing area of client-centered approaches to the delivery of legal services. I ended my last presentation on legal knowledge management with his well-known quote: "Technology is absolutely the only way firms will stay efficient and effective. Those who don’t use it well won’t survive."

More important, however, Chandler has the reputation for walking the walk as well as talking the talk.

In this interview, Chandler addresses, for me, one of the biggest questions facing lawyers who want to develop sophisticated, technology-based law practices outside of the big firm environment: if we build it, will the top corporate clients be willing to come to small, start-up firms or will the "no one gets fired for hiring Skadden" mentality still prevail?

In Chandler's world, the answer is that small firms are indeed part of the legal services equation. He gives several examples.

If you only want to pay attention to one developing legal trend over the next two to three years, this trend is the one that I suggest that you watch.

As an aside, I don't think that Chandler was joking when he made the last comment in the article.