Reports
The most critical findings from our empirical research presented in an accessible, practitioner-friendly manner.
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2022 General Counsel Sustainability Study
In early 2022, EY Law and the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession surveyed 1,000 General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers to take a closer look at the role of the law department in sustainability. Findings reveal that law departments are facing pressure on sustainability matters that are challenging them in new ways, further complicated by often ambiguous guidance from regulators and competing goals within the business itself.
The General Counsel Imperative: How can you evolve entity management into effective governance?
In January 2021, EY Law and the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession conducted interviews with more than 2,000 business leaders from 17 industries and 22 countries across the globe to assess the challenges and opportunities facing legal departments. This report examines the unique area of legal entity management and its importance to organizations.
The General Counsel Imperative: How does contracting complexity hide clear profitability?
In January 2021, EY Law and the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession conducted interviews with more than 2,000 business leaders from 17 industries and 22 countries across the globe. This report demonstrates a robust and integrated understanding of contracting across different enterprises, gleaned from interviews with leaders from the law department, procurement, commercial contracting, and business development.
The General Counsel Imperative: How do you turn barriers into building blocks?
In early 2021, EY Law and the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession interviewed 2,000 business leaders across 22 countries. The result is an extensive and current dataset that captures the operation and transformation of law departments from the perspectives of both General Counsel and other business leaders.
Identifying and Prioritizing Client Opportunities: Implementing A Smart Collaboration Strategy series
In this third and final part of our Implementing A Smart Collaboration Strategy series, we discuss tech-enabled ways to analyze, identify and prioritize collaborative growth opportunities, along with ways to create accountability for execution. Even with the right targets, research shows that many partners lack the skills and confidence to pursue complex client opportunities which require cross-silo collaboration.
Optimizing Individuals’ and Leaders’ Collaborative Behaviors: Implementing Smart Collaboration Series
In this second part of our Implementing A Smart Collaboration Strategy series, we lay out how to equip lawyers (and potentially others in the firm) with the capabilities to turn their natural ways of working into strengths that improve collaboration. It also shows how to improve leaders’ understanding of their group dynamics so that they are better able to manage, direct, and motivate their teams (such as practice groups or key account teams).
Building the Case for Change: Implementing Smart Collaboration Series
In this first part of our Implementing A Smart Collaboration Strategy series, we lay out the diagnostic phase which helps identify current collaboration barriers and bright-spots and provides guide-posts for future areas of focus. Galvanizing the organization around collaboration requires a bottom-up ground swell of support.
The Power of Collaboration for In-House Lawyers
Collaboration isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a business necessity. As the legal, business, technological and regulatory environment changes more and more quickly, lawyers need to specialize equally quickly in order to stay at the cutting edge of knowledge in their domain. One-dimensional legal problems have swelled into multi-faceted, goliath-sized business problems that span departments, disciplines, and geographies.
Harvard Law School: Report on the State of Black Alumni II, 2000-2016
In 2000, the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession released a Report on the State of Black Alumni: 1869-2000 chronicling the achievements and continuing challenges of this remarkable group of lawyers on the basis of a comprehensive survey of the careers of over 650 of the school’s African American alumni. This new report draws from a second survey of the school’s black alumni, offering new perspectives for this new era.
The Women and Men of Harvard Law School
Begun with a generous grant from a visionary group of women alumnae in connection with the 55th celebration of the graduation of Harvard Law School's first female students in 1953, this study seeks to deepen the understanding of the career choices made by HLS graduates by providing systematic empirical information about the careers trajectories of graduates from different points in the school’s history.
Lawyers as Professionals and as Citizens
This Report is a collaboration between leading thinkers from multiple sides of the legal profession: Professor David B. Wilkins (Harvard Law School), Mr. Benjamin Heineman, Jr. (CLP Distinguished Senior Fellow and former General Counsel of General Electric) and Mr. William Lee (Partner, WilmerHale). The essay lays out their vision of lawyers as professionals and citizens in the 21st century.
The Collaboration Imperative for Today's Law Firms: Leading High-Performance Teamwork for Maximum Benefit
Why is it often so difficult to get law partners to collaborate and cross-sell? What are the benefits to the partner(s)? To the firm? To the client? How can firm leaders foster more productive and effective collaboration? This report draws on timesheets, financial records, and lawyer interviews from two global law firms over a ten-year period to point to the power of collaboration – in both the best and worst of times.
Corporate Purchasing Project
How are relationships between clients and service providers in the corporate legal market evolving, and why? Answering this critically important question requires both the availability of unbiased quantitative information about how large corporations make law firm hiring and assessment decisions and a robust qualitative and theoretical framework to evaluate broader variations and trends.
Harvard Law School Report on the State of Black Alumni: 1869-2000
Based off of original research from CLP, this pioneering report documents the stories and successes of Harvard Law School's Black graduates until 2000.