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Dear <<First Name>>,
Sustainability is one of these ideas that you cannot really be opposed to. It's like Peace, Freedom, or Christmas Gifts—who would ever say No to that?
And yet, the fist thing we noticed as we engaged with this topic is how complex, multi-dimensional, and amorphous it is. It seems each everyone has his or her personal understanding of what Sustainability means. And this openness may actually be the reason why so many organizations, public and private, commercial and non-profit, have put Sustainability on their agenda and dedicated resources to it. It's hard to find a legal or business entity that does not name a “Head of Sustainability” on its website or explain how it aims to contribute to a more sustainable environment, a more sustainable society, and a more sustainable economy (or to all three of them).
At the LLI, we will dedicate the next Liquid Experience Call on March 26, 2021 to the topic of Sustainability (find the announcement on our Webpage and on Linked-In). And as always, we will be supportive and critical at the same time.
A good systemic test for the validity of any concept is to apply the concept to itself and see what happens. In our last Newsletter, we addressed the topic of Humanization, and in our Call for Papers for the 3rd Liquid Legal Book Publication with Springer, we ask “Are we Humane?”
For the Liquid Experience call on March 26, we are now asking “Is Sustainability Sustainable?”
Participation in free of charge, but you must register in advance to be able to join this online forum.
Please also watch our Sustainability Video on LinkedIn.
Of course, in this Newsletter you will also find all other topics we have been busy with in the recent months.
Enjoy the read!
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In this issue
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[LLI Members] Meet our Rockstars
We are happy to introduce Antonia and Evgeny, our new interns, supporting the LLI in day-to-day operations and LLI projects.
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Antonia
I studied Law with German Law at Oxford University and am now moving on to the Legal Practice Course in London.
My day-to-day tasks at the LLI include maintaining our website, posting on our social media channels and engaging with LLI members on our MS Teams platform. I’m also involved in several long-term projects including our new student competition, our forthcoming book on ‘Humanisation and the Law’ and SEO for our website. The LLI is a great place for reflecting on the future of the legal industry, and it represents the entire legal ecosystem, including new actors such as Legal Tech startups—this is what motivated me to apply for an internship here!
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Evgeny
I'm an open and creative mind with a fondness for new technologies. Currently, in my Master studies at the University of Ulm, with a focus on Accounting, Auditing and IT.
My day-to-day tasks include onboarding of new members and support for any issues with our beloved virtual working space as well as helping with LLI’s accounting. Together with my colleague Antonia I’m involved in our student competition, and I also contribute to other projects like our well-known Liquid Experience Calls. Being a part of LLI I see not only as a simple internship, but also as an opportunity to experience how the process of changing the future looks like on the inside.
PS: I also like Sci-Fi.
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[LLI Members] Newcomers
Stefan Fandel (Merck KGaA) - Márton Hagner (Robert Bosch GmbH) - Marc Quandel - Osborne Clarke (represented by Gereon Abendroth) - Larissa Böhme (GSK Stockmann) - Alan Gonzalez (EY Mexico) - YoonHyun Cho (2L - Queen's University Faculty of Law) - Stefan Schmittner - Jeroen Zweers (Noun) - Marc Quabius - Lukas Wollenschlaeger - Tomas van der Heijden (Merantix) - Diane Manz - Miklos Orban (OPL) - Su Reiter (Law student / Freelancer) - Matthias Walther (Rechtsanwaltskanzlei Matthias Walther) - Join GmbH (represented by Christian Wittrich) - Jonas Racine (Justizdirektion Kanton Zürich) - CLARIUS.LEGAL Rechtsanwaltsaktiengesellschaft (represented by Martina Lipke) - Adriana Jassan (Gunnercooke LLP) - Laura Fauqueur - Dr. Markus Wöll (Boehringer Ingelheim) - Elevate (represented by Nicole Giantonio) - Noemi Schmutzer (Accenture) - Dr. Jean Obst (Robert Bosch GmbH) - Christoph Küng (Kellerhals Carrard / Swiss LegalTech Association / Global LegalTech Consortium) - Andreas Wonnenberg (Rechtsanwaltskanzlei Wonnenberg; Member of WILL) - Dominik Preusche (PREUSCHE & PARTNER Patent- und Rechtsanwälte mbB) - Polderon BV (represented by Jason Padman) - Alyson Luftig (Working Mental Health)
Find an overview of our members at the LLI Member Section.
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[LLI Members] Notable Motivations
- “I believe that, as a professional, we must be updated in order to give better services to our clients, specially being a lawyer these days. What motivates me to join is the collaborative way of working and the opportunity not only to read and learn about all this changes we are facing as legal advisors in this new era, but to be part of them.”
- “After I speaking to Kai, he got me excited about the institute. As a digital native and a law student, I would like to support digitization in law and I am also interested in the topics of the institute such as legal design or new work.”
- “I am very interested in the innovative work the LLI is doing and the topics it is focusing on, especially mental health and the lawyer as a human being in the currently ongoing transformation process in the legal world. I would be delighted to be part of the team and support the institute in future projects.”
- “I would love to be connected with this interdisciplinary community of stakeholders in the legal world who are motivated to innovate, disrupt and promote new ways of thinking. I am a lawyer by background who has been working at the intersection of law & artificial intelligence for the past five years.”
- “As a young legal professional with a big international law firm I am aware of the changes that will take place in the legal environment and want to create those changes rather than only react to them/accept them. I am highly interested in new approaches to providing legal services and legal knowledge. Furthermore I would love to execute one of the many ideas I have for improvement in this regard and I hope to find new ideas and input.”
- “I am excited about the plan the organization has taken on; especially in Germany a hub for legal innovation is highly needed in my opinion.”
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[LLI Book] HUMANIZATION and The Law
Call for Papers for the 3rd Liquid Legal Book Publication with Springer
 We plan to publish our third Liquid Legal Compendium in 2021 with articles from LLI members and interested legal and business professionals on the topic of “HUMANIZATION and The Law”.
Please click here to check the "Call for Paper" and send an abstract (approx. 300-500 words) to publishers@liquid-legal-institute.org until April 07, 2021, including the title, main thesis and table of content of your article.
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[LLI Ecosystem] Publication Partnership with Weblaw CH
 We proudly announce another partnership for publication: with Weblaw AG we found an ideal partner to spread our valuable content, such as the Digitalization Guide or the Contract Lifecycle Platform Selection Guide.
The Digitalization Guide has been nicely designed and beautifully formatted by Thomas Gessner and is available as download on our Webpage. With more teams generating valuable outputs, such as the Legal In-house Processes Team or the CLM Vendor Team, we were working on a series of booklets that can be either consumed as eBooks or in a printed version (print-on-demand).
We are looking forward to working with Weblaw and publishing our first booklets soon.
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[LLI Ecosystem] LIQUIFY
The Official LLI Transformation and Training Methodology
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The LLI Board and Roger have been developing a LIQUIFY-methodology for driving transformation in a legal department. We will publish our LIQUIFY methodology as a booklet and will also offer an interactive Online Learning Seminar that will run over 4 weeks and include 16 hours of instructor training, plus group work in MS Teams. It is at the same time a prototype for a commercial LLI offering. Of course, LLI members will get a discount.
Please watch for a special edition of the LLI Newsletter that will be exclusively focused on LIQUIFY and contain more information.
Please contact the LLI Board or Roger Strathausen for further details.
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[LLI Project] How to Select a CLM Platform
Selecting the right platform for a Contract Lifecycle Management System can appear to be a daunting task. Our Liquid Legal Whitepaper provides helpful reflections on the key aspects of a CLM platform selection and food for thought in the form of questions guiding the reader towards a better understanding on what features matter most.
A breakdown of the vendor selection process helps making tangible steps toward a final decision on the preferred platform. Interviews on successful CLM implementation add perspective and hopefully also encouragement.
Currently, the whitepaper is under review by our publication partner Weblaw CH, an members could already get a preview on MS Teams. Stay tuned as the Whitepaper is going to be available soon!
Please contact our LLI member Klaus Gresbrand for further details.
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[LLI Project] Lawyer Well-Being—An Update
In Mid-February, we asked our Partner EUPD to extract the raw data from the Survey—so while the Study is still “open”, we have a first extract of the findings. Sifting through the datasets, it becomes obvious that the responses are a great source of information, and also that it is quite an undertaking to prepare the data for the planned next steps.
So, we invited the LLI community to step up and support this important project. The newly formed project team has kicked off the work in late February and will share next steps as soon as possible.
Please contact our LLI member Dierk Schindler for further details.
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[LLI Project] eSignatures
2020 became known as the year during which legal transitions took up speed. The Covid-19 crisis made the immense overhead cost of ineffective contract signing processes obvious.
Technically, it is no rocket science, but people are asking many questions about eSignature: What is it? Is it legally binding? How to best implement it? What are the typical use cases and best practices?
Each company seems to have the same problems—and too often is re-inventing the wheel. With this project, we want to give an eSignatures overview and show how best to get started.
Please contact our LLI member Jutta Loewe for further details.
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[LLI Project] Working out Loud for Legal Professionals
The Working Out Loud method by John Stepper is getting more and more popular. But what exactly is it about?
In a circle of 4-5 people you spend 1 hour per week for 12 weeks. Guided by professional instructions and exercises and supported by your circle you set up your goal, you expand your network, you foster your relationships, you establish helpful habits and focus your attention to finally reach your goal.
The idea behind it is based on 5 principles:
1) Relationships – It’s all about connection.
2) Generosity – The more altruistic, the more you will get in return.
3) Visible Work – Show what you do as a contribution to your network.
4) Purposeful discovery – Having a goal in mind orients your activities.
5) Growth Mindset – Be curious and never stop learning.
We are currently planning a WOL information session in the near future and we are happy to support anybody who would like to join a circle.
Please contact our LLI member Diane Manz and Sebastian Schüssler for further details.
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[LLI Communication] Boosting LLI’s social media communication
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Social media platforms are an effective way for LLI to reach people and make them enthusiastic about its ideas. To professionalize LLIs social media communication, our board members (Kai, Dierk, Bernhard, Roger, supported by Evgeny and Antonia) spent some time in working on an appropriate strategy.
Together with our corporate member Unterschied & Macher, a digital tech company based in Frankfurt/Main, we refined LLI‘s social media communication in order to use these channels more effectively. In three consecutive workshops, it was all about defining a clear strategy, selecting suitable channels, and creating inspiring content.
Anna Scheffold, experience & strategy consultant and social media enthusiast, and Jessica Viebach-Mall, senior content manager and head of content strategy, led the participants through three exiting evenings creating hands-on experience and useful results. We could directly apply the insights and improve our social media work from one workshop to the next. We hope you already noticed the step forward in our communication on LinkedIn.
The workshops were conducted remotely via MS Teams and the digital whiteboard tool Conceptboard that did not only enable us to collaborate in real-time but also made it fun and accelerated our process.
Please contact our LLI members Urs Fischer and Heike Rehm for further details.
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