No, you have not missed any posts. Yes, my last #BIOBG post was published in March 2021.!
Many reasons why, and the one Iâm choosing as the *best* reason: shortly after starting this Substack missive, I started another one with my good friend and colleague Alyson Carrel, that is dedicated to our work on the Delta Model.
Turns out that I was completely incapable of keeping up *two* Substack publications at the same time in the year that was 2021! Who knew? đč
So, in this first post of 2022, I say goodbye đ to only the things I didnât do. Yes, so much of any year is flammable, so letâs simply burn 2021 and move on. Shall we?
As for the things I didnât do1, which include following through on my intentions for this publication, I offer a winding-up2Â thought on leadership (my #BIOBG theme for 2021, as it were) and a transition into 2022âs theme: RADICAL COLLABORATION.
Leading the change we need across the law and the legal profession starts with legal education.
This is the thought. Many of us have been thinking long and hard about how we actually do this for years. Many, many years. I offer this primarily because I think we need to keep saying it until we start acting accordingly.
As I read recent observations framed as âan honest and candid assessment of corporate legal, circa 2021,â I was reminded once again that we must keep stating the obvious until it truly is obvious to a critical mass of people who are willing and able to make different choices.
I believe this is most likely to happen when we help develop lawyers who have the requisite mix of practice, people, and process competencies to reimagine how we work in legal. This mix is differentâperhaps radically differentâthan the current mix that our graduates enter the world with.
Whether we train students accordingly or not, every one of us who teaches in a law school is teaching the future leaders of our profession. When we choose not to reflect with intention and iterate accordingly to adjust the tools we give our students, we fail the profession as a whole.
This is a heavy burden we bear. I hope we feel the weight.
In short order, Iâll begin a series of posts on RADICAL COLLABORATION, which perhaps is just slightly (very slightly) less critical than leadership when it comes to saving this burning platform we occupy.
As I let go of the things I didnât do in 2021, I thank them for the inspiration that might have been. And, on this first day of 2022, I begin again with the smallest numbers. Numbers of intentions, that is.
If youâre still reading, many thanks for joining me. I very much hope youâll chime in along the way. I look forward to learning from you all in 2022.
(This is the very â€ïž of radical collaboration, by the way.)
- Cat
1 January 2022
Many thanks to Naomi Shihab Nye and her poem Burning the Old Year for giving me a frame for accepting the limitations of my attempts to realize intentions in 2021.
I initially wrote âfinalâ as in final thoughts but these arenât my final thoughts on the topic. Simply the winding-up of the topic for 2021.
Lovely to hear from you Cat. The poem Burning The Old Year is exquisite -- thank you for sharing. Julian
Canât wait to hear your thinking on the conundrum of how to spur effective and committed collaboration in a profession that is fragmented and competitive and more focused on the (billable) trees than the (sustainable) forest.
Also yes to: â This is the thought. Many of us have been thinking long and hard about how we actually do this for years. Many, many years. I offer this primarily because I think we need to keep saying it until we start acting accordingly.â One often feels like something of a nag, offering the same critique and calls for systemic change over and over again, year after year. Bravo to you for taking another breath and doing it again!