Partner Andrew Sherman Discusses Evolving Communication Styles on Reinventing Professionals Podcast

Partner Andrew J. Sherman was a guest on the Reinventing Professionals podcast to discuss how current and future leaders in the legal industry are adapting their communication styles to fit in with the changing landscape.

In the Feb. 7 episode, Sherman said law school students and young lawyers want to have access to new technology, work differently and see changes in how management approaches those situations. This new approach includes how different firms and individual lawyers are handling the development of artificial intelligence, he said.

“You can either approach it with a fear mindset or a greed mindset,” Sherman said. “I choose greed over fear. I think that these tools are designed to make us more productive, more efficient, better advisors and that’s going to ultimately make me a better lawyer, better practitioner and deliver more value to our clients. It’s easy to get trapped in the fear mindset and that is probably why there’s such disparity between the AmLaw 100 right now. Until we’re all on the positivity train about the impact of technology, you’re going to see this pushback.”

Sherman likens the slow adoption of technology moving forward to if a company retained a law firm that still uses the mail to send all of their communications, instead of utilizing email. He said as technology evolves, firms and lawyers will have to continue to adapt to be considered for work.

“I think we will get to a point where general counsels will be dictating certain technology deployment, it’s just AI is not at the level of adoption and acceptance that email is,” Sherman said. “But we’ve seen general counsels insist on certain project management, data and update sharing tools, and if you don’t have those tools, you’re not being considered for the work or the transaction. They don’t want to wait for your phone call to know where they are in the progress on things. If there’s not a private network built that they can access on their timetable and at their convenience, there could be a pushback.”

During the podcast, Sherman also discussed new ways of training legal professionals, the importance of innovation in drafting correspondence and opportunities with AI.

Ross Guberman, the founder and CEO of LawCatch, the developer of BriefCatch, a software platform designed to elevate legal writing, which has recently introduced new generative AI features for lawyers and legal professionals, was also a guest on the episode.

The Reinventing Professionals podcast is hosted by Ari Kaplan, founder of Ari Kaplan Advisors, a consultancy that studies, supports and promotes the legal industry, with a strong concentration on technology trends.