The events last summer following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police shook the city of Minneapolis to its core.  Days of riots and unrest destroyed scores of business, particularly in the Lake Street area, where rebuilding is still taking place.  Many parts of the community have pulled together to assist with the rebuilding as well as tackle the broader community issues that also in the wake of the George Floyd killing even more than one year later. Sharon Sayles-Belton, vice president of alliances and partnerships at Thomson Reuters and former mayor of Minneapolis, and Rick Anderson, senior principal at Fish & Richardson discuss where things stand – more than one year later – in that most affected area of Minneapolis that was really Ground Zero for the events of last year, as well as in the broader community, and on the broader issues of racism and policing that are still being grappled with in Minneapolis and beyond.

Legal Current

One Year After the George Floyd Killing - Community Rebuilding & Police Reform

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only affected in-person court hearings, but has similarly affected the arbitration world as well.  In-person arbitration hearings are now difficult to hold, owing to travel restrictions and the difficulty in safely conducting face-to-face hearings.   The arbitration world is rapidly adapting to remote arbitration hearings.  The Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, one of the leading institutions for international arbitration, is leading the charge to adapt arbitration processes and technologies to remote hearings. Lise Alm, head of business development, discusses how her organization is helping to transform arbitration heariings not only for the current situation but to prepare for the future as well.   Sebastiaan Bos, director of solutions for Europe, the Middle East and Asia at Thomson Reuters, joins the discussion to discuss how advanced workflow technologies such as HighQ can help enable this transformation. 

Adapting International Arbitration Through Remote Technology

Global Lawyer Hackathon Addresses Climate Change Hundreds of lawyers around the world are participating in a unique global “hackathon” to create new contracts and model laws to help fight climate change.  The Chancery Lane Project aims to create legal frameworks to enable and encourage businesses and communities to have a positive impact on the environment, and envisions a world where every contract and law enables solutions to climate change. Becky Clissmann, environmental law editor at Practical Law, discusses the project and how it engages legal professionals to empower businesses and communities to help meet goals of net zero emissions.  

Global Lawyer Hackathon Addresses Climate Change

Small law firms have had to endure not only the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the legal market, but also the additional challenges of being a small business during the current conditions. The 2020 State of the U.S. Small Law Firms Report looks at how small firms are faring against the recent challenges.  Mark Haddad, general manager of the Small Law Firm Segment at Thomson Reuters discusses the report’s findings, and how the current situation also presents opportunities for firms. 

State of the Small Law Firm Report

The tremendous disruptions caused by COVID-19 may introduce a new term to the business lexicon: business divorce.  Many small, privately-held and family-owned businesses may not have anticipated the kind of business and personal stressors being brought on by the pandemic. Lee Weinberg of Weinberg Gonser LLP discusses how “business divorces” may surge because of the COVID-19 situation.

COVID-19 & "Business Divorces"

When the year began, 2020 had been expected to be a growth year for the Canadian legal market.  Now the outlook has changed to one of uncertainty. But legal needs remain, and law firms and corporate legal departments still need to meet those needs, and therein remains potential opportunities.  Thomson Reuters is offering the new 2020 State of the Legal Market in Canada Infographic which uses data from the Thomson Reuters 2019 Legal Tracker™ LDO Index and Acritas Sharplegal US, to identify main takeaways from the recently released 2020 State of the Legal Market in Canada report. Among these findings are how these and other strategic priorities have been identified and which are among them are the most important, according to the corporate law department officials surveyed. Maria Cooley, head of Canada for Thomson Reuters, discusses the picture that is coming into focus for Canadian corporate legal department moving forward. 

2020 State of the Legal Market - Canada

One of HighQ’s strengths is its versatility in solving a myriad of problems that law firms and legal departments deal with.  That has taken another leap forward with the introduction of HighQ 5.4.   Stuart Barr, Chief Product & Strategy Officer, discusses the innovations in version 5.4, including seamless integration with Contract Express, allowing more powerful document automation. 

Thomson Reuters HighQ Announces Version 5.4

Legal technology is advancing at lightning speed these days, and HighQ is no exception.  The innovative cloud-based platform is continually bringing new innovations to the legal industry. Stuart Barr, chief product and strategy officer, discusses the some of the advances HighQ has introduced recently. 

Continual Innovation at HighQ - Interview with Stuart Barr

Legal Current is a podcast from Thomson Reuters, Legal, that features information and commentary on the business and practice of law.