• LPS :: The VLS Course

    Legal Problem Solving (LPS) is a Vanderbilt Law School course in which students use

    modern methods to design creative solutions to 21st-century legal services delivery problems.

    LPS is part of Vanderbilt's Program on Law and Innovation.

    Course Overview

    "The traditional law practice business model constrains innovations that would provide greater access to, and enhance the delivery of, legal services." This finding, a key part of the American Bar Association's 2016 Report on the Future of Legal Services, confirms that innovation in the delivery of legal services is both necessary and inevitable to meet the needs of ALL legal services consumers. Specifically, the Report recommends, "[t]he legal profession should partner with other disciplines and the public for insights about innovating the delivery of legal services."

     

    Legal Problem Solving acts on this recommendation. Starting from a historical context for the current state of legal services delivery, this course introduces human-centered design thinking and other proven creative problem-solving constructs to provide a client-centered focus for creating innovative and effective methods of delivering legal services to a wide range of consumers in the 21st century.

     

    To borrow from Professor JB Ruhl's syllabus for Law 2050, this is an unusual law school course — by design. The forces shaping legal services delivery — the very forces that will shape professional opportunities for today's law students — are not adequately addressed by the traditional law school curriculum. This course seeks to fill in the gaps, to give soon-to-be lawyers the tools, methods, and processes required to meet client needs while designing sustainable, healthy ways of practicing law.

    Human-Centered Design

    The primary lens for work in this course is Human-Centered Design ("HCD"), a fluid framework for discovering problems, ideating solutions, and iterating to continuously improve solutions. HCD provides a methodology for considering both legal service delivery challenges, as well as clients' legal problems. The HCD method also serves as a tool individual law students can use to craft a rewarding, successful legal career.

     

    Ultimately, this course is about doing, creating, and making — from the client's perspective. The reading is front-end loaded, as the required texts help explain tools, methods, and concepts we will use to "do" collaborative legal problem solving as the semester progresses.

     

    In addition to the course texts (see LPS :: THE RESOURCES for a reading list), course content includes class-wide and small group discussions, guest speakers, presentations, creative problem-solving exercises, and a capstone design challenge. The collaborative capstone design challenge requires students to use HCD and other methods to create relevant solutions to real challenges faced across the legal services spectrum.

    Technology

    The course uses technologies leveraged by creative teams across disciplines, including Slack for all class communication, Trello to manage collaborative projects, and Google Drive (Docs and Sheets) for all written assignments.

     

    This course also has this website/blog, where we will share student blog posts and other writing projects over the course of the semester. We also will introduce additional technology tools relevant to work in this course AND the practice of law, including mind-mapping apps, presentation apps, and workflow management tools.

    Learning Outcomes

    Students learn to creatively solve legal problems as well as complex legal services delivery problems. They develop and exercise their empathy and curiosity muscles — critical skills for a successful career in the 21st century. They learn and hone collaboration and communication skills, including the skills of delivering and receiving feedback. Students become comfortable in experimenting with and using a wide range of technology serving the 21st-century law practice.


    Ultimately, students will understand and be able to apply human-centered design (mindsets and processes) and related tools to THINK LIKE A CLIENT and BE CURIOUS, and to creatively solve clients' legal and service delivery challenges while simultaneously crafting a personally rewarding and sustainable legal career.

  • LPS :: The Process

    Design doing.

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    UNDERSTAND

    the tools and methods of human-centered design and other creative

    problem-solving constructs

    For context, we do a deep dive into the current state of the legal profession, to understand the range and scope of service delivery challenges faced across the spectrum, from access to justice challenges to BigLaw struggles, and everything in between.

     

    From there, we engage in a series of readings and conversations that introduce the tools of human-centered design thinking and systems thinking, providing case studies and concrete examples of how these tools can serve to solve a myriad of legal services delivery challenges.

     

    We also hear from experts in the fields of legal design, agile project management, and legal tech, as well as design doers from other disciplines.

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    EXPERIMENT

    with design thinking and other problem-solving tools, to learn how they work in the real world

    In each class session, we'll undertake hands-on design and creative problem-solving activities and challenges, to learn how design thinking and other methods really work in the wild.

     

    Students will get comfortable using the core elements of design thinking (empathy inspiration through discovery, ideation, prototyping, and iteration) to solve problems.

     

    In-class experiments focus on tools used throughout the design process, including journey maps, the five whys, expectation maps, personas, storyboards, service blueprints, the business model canvas, and more.

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    MAKE

    real solutions to real legal service delivery challenges faced today by real clients

    The course culminates in a capstone design challenge undertaken by students in small teams. In the Fall 2018 iteration of LPS, students collaborated with VUMC students and staff and engineering students to redesign informed consent for surgical patients at Vanderbilt Medical Center, resulting in a case study in the volume Health Design Thinking. In the Fall 2019 iteration of LPS, students worked with local pro bono and legal aid organizations to create access to legal information, understanding, and services through human-centered design methods.

     

    In 2021, student teams will be designing the project plan to solve this challenge: How might we design a civil justice system that enables everyone to get access to the information and effective assistance they need — when and where they need it —and in a format they can use?

    A cohort of students will carry the project into 2022 as part of the Legal Design Studio, housed in Vanderbilt's innovation center The Wond'ry.

     

    The capstone design challenge serves to coalesce the various elements of understanding and experimenting proceeding it and draws heavily on collaboration and communication skills integral to real-world problem-solving.

     

  • LPS :: The Resources

    A curated list relevant to delivering legal services, educating lawyers,

    and designing a sustainable and aligned life in the law. In the 21st century.

    The LPS reading/listening/watching list.

    For the 2021 iteration of Legal Problem Solving, we're going fully open source for our read/watch/listen list. I'm curating a collection of podcasts (adding the Spotify playlist shortly), videos, and readings that are freely available at no cost to students.


    Stay tuned for the evolving open source list, to be shared here.

    Books we wish we had time to read.

    Many of these books will be referenced in class lectures and discussions. Prof Moon certainly will encourage students to engage with them all. This list is constantly evolving.

     

    DESIGN / DESIGN THINKING / PROBLEM SOLVING:

     

    The Art of Innovation / Tom Kelley

     

    The Book of Beautiful Questions / Warren Berger

     

    Business Model Generation / Alex Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur

     

    Change by Design (2019) / Tim Brown

     

    The Design of Business / Roger Martin

     

    The Design of Everyday Things (Revised and Expanded) / Don Norman

     

    The Designful Company / Marty Neumeier

     

    Don't Make Me Think (Revisited) / Steve Krug

     

    Change by Design / Tim Brown

     

    The Designing for Growth Fieldbook / Jeanne Liedtka, Tim Ogilvie, Rachel Brozenske

     

    The Non-Designer's Design Book (Fourth Edition) / Robin Williams

     

    The Service Innovation Handbook / Lucy Kimbell

     

    The Service Startup / Tenny Pinheiro

     

    Thinking with Type / Ellen Lupton

     

    This Is Service Design Doing / Stickdorn et al. (website)

     

    Sketch Thinking / Jose Berengueres

     

    Solving Problems with Design Thinking / Jeanne Liedtka, Andrew King, Kevin Bennett

     

    Sprint / Jake Knapp

     

    The Strategic Designer / David Holston

     

    Typography for Lawyers (2nd Ed.) / Matthew Butterick

     

    Universal Methods of Design / Bella Martin, Bruce Hanington

     

    Value Proposition Design / Alex Osterwalder et al.

     

     

    CREATIVITY / STRATEGY:

     

    Creative People Must Be Stopped / Dave Owens

     

    Gamestorming / Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, James Macanufo

     

    The Sketchnote Handbook / Mike Rohde

     

    Strategic Play / Jacqueline Lloyd Smith, Denise Meyerson, Stephen J. Walling

     

    Thinkertoys / Michael Michalko

     

    Unfolding the Napkin / Dan Roam

     

     

    JUST PLAIN GOOD BOOKS EVERYONE SHOULD READ:

     

    A Whole New Mind / Dan Pink

     

    The Achievement Habit / Bernard Roth

     

    Competing Against Luck / Clayton Christensen

     

    Daring Greatly / Brené Brown

     

    Designing Your Life / Bill Burnett, Dave Evans

     

    The Dip / Seth Godin

     

    Drive / Dan Pink

     

    Learned Optimism / Martin Seligman

     

    Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die / Chip Heath, Dan Heath

     

    Make It Stick / Peter Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel

     

    Mindset / Carol Dweck

     

    Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World / Donald Sull

     

    Start with Why / Simon Sinek

     

    Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard / Chip Heath, Dan Heath

     

    Thinking, Fast and Slow / Daniel Kahneman

     

    Yes, And / Kelly Leonard

     

     

    COMMUNICATION:

     

    If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look On My Face? My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating / Alan Alda

     

    Fierce Conversations / Susan Scott

     

     

    CARE AND FEEDING OF LAWYERS:

     

    From Army Strong to Lawyer Strong: What the legal profession can learn from the Army's experience cultivating a culture of resilience (Link to PDF) / Paula Davis

     

    The Anxious Lawyer / Jeena Cho + Karen Gifford

     

    Beyond Happiness / Ezra Bayda

     

    Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work / Chip Heath, Dan Heath

     

    Eat, Move, Sleep / Tom Rath

     

    How to Stay Sane / Phillippa Berry

     

    The Miracle of Mindfulness / Thich Nhat Hanh

     

    10% Happier / Dan Harris

     

     

    Human Centered Design Guides + Toolkits

    MichiCouThe following guides/toolkits offer general, accessible introductions to "doing" human-centered design thinking, to create solutions to challenges both big and small.

     

    A Virtual Crash Course in Design Thinking / Stanford's d.school

     

    Bootleg Bootcamp / Stanford's d.school

     

    Collective Action Toolkit / Frog

     

    Design Sprint Kit / Google

     

    Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit / IDEO

     

    Human Centered Design Field Guide / IDEO

     

    Teachers Design for Education / The Business Innovation Factory

     

    This Is Service Design Doing: Methods Library

     

    LEGAL DESIGN:
     

    Open Law Lab / Stanford

     

    Legal Design Lab / Stanford Law School + d.school

     

    Law by Design, The Book / Margaret Hagan (Stanford Open Law Lab)

     

    Listen > Learn > Lead: A Guide to Improving Court Services Through User-Centered Design / published by IAALS

     

    MAP x GAP Strategies for User-Informed Legal Design / Michigan Advocacy Program

    The state of the legal profession.

    A primary point of this course? To design solutions to some of the most wicked challenges facing the legal profession today. Want a taste of what those challenges might be? Dig into this list of curated readings.

     

    The state of the legal profession/market (reports):

    Report on the Future of Legal Services in the United States (2016) / American Bar Association

    Profile of the Legal Profession (2020) / American Bar Association

    Profile of the Legal Profession (2021) / American Bar Association

    2021 Wolters Kluwer Future Ready Lawyer: Moving Beyond the Pandemic / Wolters Kluwer

    Law Department Benchmarking Report (2021) (Executive Summary) / Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC)

    Law Firms in Transition (2020) / Altman Weil

    Business of Law and Legal Technology Survey (2020) / Aderant

    Report on the State of the Legal Market (2021) / Georgetown Law's Center for the Study of the Legal Profession

    Report on the State of the Legal Market (2022) / Georgetown Law's Center for the Study of the Legal Profession

    State of Corporate Law Departments (2021) / ACC

    State of the Industry Report (2021) / Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC)

    EY Law Survey (2021) / EY

    2021 Legal Department Operations (LDO) Index / Thompson Reuters

    Amplifying the Voice of the Client in Law FIrms (2017) / Lexis Nexis

     

    The state of access to justice and the law (reports and journals):
    Justice Needs and Satisfaction in the US 2021 / IAALS & HiiL

    Daedalus: Access to Justice (2019) / American Academy of Arts & Sciences

     

    Prognostications on what the future holds (or should hold) for lawyers and the legal profession (articles and videos):

    Robot doctors and lawyers? It’s a change we should embrace. (2015) / Daniel Susskind

    Upgrading Justice (video) (2016) / Richard Susskind at Harvard Law School

    Legal Demand 3.0 (2017) / Jordan Furlong

    The Future of the Practice of Law: Can Alternative Business Structures for the Legal Profession Improve Access to Legal Services? (2016) / James M. McCauley

    The Future Is Now: Legal Services 2017 (videos of conference talks) (2017) / IL Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism - 2Civility

    Should Tech Training For Lawyers Be Mandatory? (2017) / Bob Ambrogi

    Are Lawyers Really Luddites? (2017) / John Alber

     

    Well-being of law students and lawyers (research):

    Suffering in Silence: The Survey of Law Student Well-Being and the Reluctance of Law Students to Seek Help for Substance Use and Mental Health Concerns (2016) / Organ, Jaffe, Bender

    The Prevalence of Substance Use and Other Mental Health Concerns Among American Attorneys (2016) / Krill, Johnson, Albert

    The Path to Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change (2017) / National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being

    The Lawyer Personality: Why Lawyers Are Skeptical (2013) / Dr. Larry Richard

     

    And some more food for thought on innovation in the legal profession:

    Innovation in Organizations, Part I (015) (2017) / Bill Henderson

    Innovation in Organizations, Part II (016) (2017) / Bill Henderson

    Innovation in Organizations, Part III (017) (2017) / Bill Henderson

    Design Thinking: User-Driven Legal Process Design Could Radically Change Delivery of Services (2016) / 3 Geeks and a Law Blog

    A Successful Legal Change Management Story (027) (2017) / Bill Henderson

     

    And more general food for thought:

    In the AI Age, "Being Smart" Will Mean Something Completely Different (2017) / Harvard Business Review

     

     

    LPS Course Tools

    Embedded in LPS is a requirement that students experiment with technology as part of the problem-solving and collaboration process. To this end, we'll be using the following tech tools in our course workflow:

     

    Slack - for all course communication

     

    Trello - for all team projects

     

    Google Drive (Docs / Sheets) - for all assigned writings and team projects

     

    Coggle.It - for mindmapping exercises

     

    Students also will be introduced to numerous other technologies that support collaborative and creative work, including video, presentation, and workflow applications.

    Design Tools

    Online platforms to create custom design tools, including journey maps, personas, service blueprints, practice model canvases, and more:

     

    Canvanizer - create specific types of canvases / blueprints (e.g. service design, project management), or start tabula rasa

     

    Smaply - create personas, journey maps, stakeholder maps

     

    Practice Model Canvas - create a new legal service (or improve upon an existing one) with this canvas

  • The Social

    Prof Moon (@inspiredcat) on Twitter ... sharing (mostly) about design, the future of (legal) work, well-being, inclusion, technology, and poetry.

  • LPS :: The Prof

    Prof Caitlin (Cat) Moon is in charge of this website.

     

    In addition to teaching Legal Problem Solving, she teaches courses and workshops in

    law as a business, legal operations, technology and data, and leading innovation to

    law students at Vanderbilt and practicing attorneys via Vanderbilt Law's PoLI Institute.

     

    She also is the Director of Innovation Design in the Program on Law and Innovation (PoLI) at Vanderbilt Law,

    and Director of The PoLI Institute, bringing innovation curriculum to practicing legal professionals.

     

    Question about any of this? Please contact her.

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    Caitlin "Cat" Moon

    Director of Innovation Design

    Director, PoLI Institute

    Lecturer in Law

    Vanderbilt Law School

    c.moon@vanderbilt.edu

    @inspiredcat