It would be silly to ponder whether shiplap or wallpaper is the better choice for your dining area when your roof has a big hole in it. Many law firms have serious holes to patch, and if they don’t start worrying about the right problems—client service innovation, succession planning, inclusive hiring and generally joining the 21st century—the hours spent debating when and how to reopen the office will be pointless.

Brenda Pontiff

Too much recent dialogue about the future of the legal industry has revolved around in-person vs. hybrid vs. remote work. This line of thinking is very much on brand for an industry that struggles to think beyond itself and embrace sophisticated technology, metrics and client care initiatives that their counterparts in adjacent industries already have, such as accountants, auditors and business operations consultancies.