In the words of former GE CEO, Jack Welch, "If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete." This CLE covers how technology has changed the practice of law and how we can (and should) use analytics to our transactional and litigation advantage. Examine how analytics have changed our application of model rules of professional responsibility. Understand how analytics and artificial intelligence are applied in both professional and legal world. Examine how to use and apply analytics in a legal case.

Bill Henderson once advised me not to use the term "industrialization" to describe changes in the legal profession to attorneys. It offends us, and we disengage. But I titled this field note "industrial evolution" because we must embrace industrialization as a necessary and valuable part of our transformation that will elevate the value of our profession in a digital age. This post is part of a series that reflects my legal industry learning journey, building upon my career journey (080), professional evolution (143), focus on knowledge work (159), and future practice design theory (210). This installment examines the changes happening now that require us to evolve to serve a civilization experiencing exponential change powered by the fourth industrial revolution, and how we might get there faster, together. See Erik Brynjolfsson & Andrew McAfee, The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies (2016) (cognitive automation will produce creative destruction). This post was drafted proximal to the College of Law Practice Management's 2021 Futures Conference, which offered expert commentary on the information work industrialization megatrend and strongly influenced the thesis presented here: that we are experiencing accelerating change as a secular trend. As discussed below, my tentative solution is, in part, to invert the law's traditional pyramid structure. None of this is likely to make much sense, however, without first describing the set of challenges before us.