The Legal Think Tank

We had the opportunity to work with the Foundations for Practice Team at the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System to imagine new ways of advancing their mission. The Foundations team central purpose is to drive transformative, systemic change in the areas of legal education and legal hiring. Foundation’s vision is a more diverse profession that closes the gap between school and career, between credentials and capabilities, and between thinking like a lawyer and becoming one.

Business Challenge

  • IAALS needed help advancing their core mission 

  • Helped refine and finalize their research-based Competency Model for educating and hiring Legal Professionals

Approach

Human-centered & Strategic Design for best practice competency-modeling

  • Human-centered design approach to determine who will be using the model

  • Designed the model to be flexible for multiple applications including: assessment, professional development, and instruction

  • Created a meaningful, motivational cipher to connect the history of the project to today's mission

Outcomes

  • Human-centered tools designed to best meet the needs of those in legal practice

  • Robust research-based Competency Model to guide: legal education practices in law schools; hiring and development efforts in law firms and other legal areas of practice

Case Studies