ABA book explores how to improve delivery of legal services and the happiness of lawyers

Change is inevitable, and has hit the legal profession as never before. Once-hallowed law firms face unprecedented financial pressures, with corporate clients negotiating rates, reducing their reliance on outside counsel and demanding more value. Lawyers themselves, overworked and worried about job security, are more anxiety ridden than ever.

To address these challenges, the American Bar Association’s new book, “Finding Bliss: Innovative Legal Models for Happy Clients & Happy Lawyers,” provides creative and disruptive solutions to improve the delivery of legal services and the daily lives of lawyers.

Written by three co-founders and managing directors of Bliss Lawyers, a new legal model that hires attorneys to work on engagements for its corporate and law firm clients, the book provides compelling examples of how to achieve greater success in terms of profitability, productivity and satisfaction. It explores seven themes to improve legal practice and client service: innovation; value; predictability and trust; flexibility; talent development; diversity and inclusion; and relationship building. The book’s overriding focus is to demonstrate ways that traditional and new model firms can more effectively deliver legal services and align the skills of the legal talent pool to better meet clients’ needs.

The book was written by Deborah Epstein Henry, Garry A. Berger and Suzie Scanlon Rabinowitz. Henry is an internationally recognized expert, consultant and public speaker on the future of the legal profession, new legal models, women and work/life balance. She has been featured in The New York Times, NBC Nightly News, The Wall Street Journal and as a Philadelphia Business Journal “Women of Distinction.” Berger is a pioneer in the legal services industry, having founded Berger Legal, an innovative virtual law firm serving Fortune 500 clients as well as small to mid-size companies. He spent three years at The Thomson Corporation (now Thomson Reuters) and previously practiced at Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Rabinowitz recently launched SRD Legal Group, which is a women owned virtual law firm. She has been of counsel at Berger Legal for more than a decade and previously practiced at Sullivan & Cromwell and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.