College of Law Practice Management InnovAction Award

The College of Law Practice Management (of which I am (ahem) the President) sponsors the InnovAction Award, which is designed to identify and honor innovation in law practice management. Slaw is pleased to be a Friend of InnovAction

The College of Law Practice Management is calling for entries for its 2008 InnovAction Awards. This is a worldwide search for lawyers, law firms and other deliverers of legal services who have invented and successfully applied totally new business practices to the delivery of legal services. The goal of the InnovAction Awards is to demonstrate to the legal community what can be created when passionate professionals, with big ideas and strong convictions, are determined to make a difference.

If your law firm, legal department or organization has done something innovative – whether with technology, talent management, clients, organizational structure or otherwise – please take a moment to review the InnovAction web site and consider submitting an application. The InnovAction Awards are prestigious and ideas that surface from them will be useful to all of us.

If you have any questions about the College or the awards, ask me or my friend and fellow Trustee, Ron Friedmann.

The award recipients will be selected by the following blue-ribbon panel of judges in July.

* Maggie Callicrate, Partner, Kerma Partners.
* Thomas Clay, Principal, Altman Weil, Inc.
* Jordan Furlong, Editor-in-Chief, Canadian Bar Association’s National Magazine and fellow Slawer.
* Gregory Siskind, Founding Partner, Siskind Susser and Bland.
* Merrilyn Astin Tarlton, Principal, Astin Tarlton.

The actual presentation of the awards will occur in September at the Annual Meeting and Induction Ceremony of the College in Chicago, Illinois. Award entries will be judged on the basis of four primary criteria:

* Absence of precedent (never been done or done quite this way before.)
* Evidence of action (the innovative idea was transformed into action and not merely reflective of best intentions)
* Effectiveness of innovation (there is some measurable outcome that would indicate that the innovation is accomplishing what it was intended to do)
* Action must have taken place within no more than three years prior to this entry.

“There are many management challenges facing the legal profession, and too often we hear lawyers saying ‘We’ve never done it that way!’ or ‘Who else has done this?’” said Chuck Coulter, Co-chair of the InnovAction Awards and past President of the College. “We want to recognize and honor those who dare to think differently and succeed by doing so.”

The first three years of the InnovAction Award program saw award winners from locations around the world including: Sydney, Australia; Los Angeles, California; Denver, Colorado; Washington, DC; Birmingham, England; Chicago, Illinois; Des Moines, Iowa; Auckland, New Zealand; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Glasgow, Scotland. Sponsors of the program learned that innovative thinking occurs in nearly every practice setting and size.