Seyfarth Shaw Joins Staudt’s Practice and Professionalism Course

By Alexander Rabanal, Access to Justice Fellow at Chicago-Kent’s Center for Access to Justice & Technology

Seyfarth Shaw, one the nation’s top law firms, joined Professor Ronald W. Staudt’s Practice & Professionalism course last Thursday as Lisa Damon and Andrew Baker led an opening class of a three session section taught by the firm. Ms. Damon is a partner and the National Chair of Seyfarth Shaw’s Labor & Employment Department. Mr. Baker, a Chicago-Kent alumnus, is the Global Director of Seyfarth Shaw’s Legal Technology Innovations Office.

Last Thursday’s class featured a discussion on the Voice of the Client—the firm’s approach to client relationships that focuses on the client’s needs in a way that goes beyond merely understanding the client’s discrete legal issue. Rather, it is an in-depth process that seeks to determine what works and does not work for the client as well as how they define success—i.e., the client’s value story. Ms. Damon and Mr. Baker also spoke about service design at Seyfarth Shaw, in which interdisciplinary teams comprised of professionals such as attorneys, legal solutions architects, and legal solutions managers leverage their diverse backgrounds and experiences to craft a tailored solution to the client’s needs. In the last part of the class, students met in groups and engaged in thought-provoking hypotheticals.

Professionals from Seyfarth Shaw will be teaching two more classes in Practice & Professionalism. Mr. Baker and Andrew Medeiros, Associate Legal Solutions Architect and Chicago-Kent alumnus, will teach a class on project management and process improvement on Tuesday, October 14. Additionally, Byong Kim, Manager of Legal Solutions, and Amani Smathers, Associate Legal Solutions Architect, will teach a class on technology tools used to improve firm processes and serve client needs on Tuesday, October 21.